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ihl.si.ej bv M .Caro i'A ll:.ri, rhil4<iclr- 



AN ACCOUNT 



OF 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR 



TO THE 



NORTH AND DOWN EAST, 

IN TUE YEAR OF OUR LORD ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED 
AND THIRTY-FOUR. 



HIS ^ 

OBJECT BEING TO EXAMINE THE GRAND MANUFACTURING ESTA- 
BLISHMENTS OF THE COUNTRY ; AND ALSO TO FIND OUT 
THE CONDITION OF ITS LITERATURE AND MORALS, 
THE EXTENT OF ITS COMMERCE, AND 
THE PRACTICAL OPERATION 

OF 

"THE EXPERIMENT." 



' When Uiou dost read a book, do not turn the leaves only, but gather 
the fruit." 



WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. 



PIULADELPHIA : ^•^:_ 

E. L. CAKEY AND A. HART. 

BALTIMORE CARKY, HART, AND CO. 

llOtJTOJX 'WILLIAM i). TICK.NOR, 

1835. 



^'tf 



Ct 



}l 



ENTEiiED according to the actof Coiijircss, in the year 1835, by 

JS. L. Carey and A. Hart, 

in the Clerk's OlMce of the District Court of the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTyfED BY h. JOHNSON, 
PillLADELPlIXA. 



\ 



INTRODUCTION. 



Somebody told me once of a member 
of Congress, I think from Philadelphia, 
who said he found an old scrap of paper, 
wrote by some old fellow that killed him- 
self, or was hung, or died of starvation, or 
some such nonsense, and spun an Indian 
path story out of it. 

Now, I don't like dead men's stories ; not 
even old Jefferson's, that raised the bristles 
of so many in North Carolina and else- 
where, who thought the old man was a good 
friend, until they found what he thought 
on paper. 

Some persons tickle up their fancies to 
the scribbling point, and then their pen 
goes like a fidler's elbow. I like rale life, 
that makes a book jump out of the press 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

like «i new dollar from a mint-hopper. 
Some likes to use up the big Fs, and write 
all about themselves ; and 1 reckon it isn't 
easy to quit that, particularly when one is 
uncommon hard pushed to come out a 
second time. 

Now, this is just my case. If every one 
has not read my book, every one ought, 
which comes to the same thing. 

Stepping into a tavern a short time ago, 
I met a friend, who said to me, " Crockett, 
my dear fellow, we are all as dull in this 
empty barn of a city, as a grog-shop with- 
out liquor ; and unless you come out with 
another book, I do not know how we are 
to get along." 

'• Much obliged to you, major ; but may 
be, if I do, you'll laugh at me, and not at 
my book." 

"Trust me, colonel, you are mistaken: 
w^e are all looking to you for niusick. Al- 
low m.e to introduce to you my friend, 
Terrance O'Neal." 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

"Sir, I am happy to have the honor of 
an introduction to your friend." 

" By my sowl the honor's done to me. 
I'm sinsare in declarin that; for minny's 
the day I've long'd to hiv a wag of your 
bone. How are ye, my darhng boy, mem- 
ber of Congress, speech-maker, book-mak- 
er, an all? Talkin o' books, the divil a 
book hiv I read, at all, at all, clane thro', 
since I quat the owld records in the middle 
of the Axes of the Aposels, barrin the life 
of your own dear self; an a purty book it 
is ; wrote wid all the sperret of a man of 
honor, with all the sincerity of a man of 
truth, and in regard of the powers that be, 
widout even a touch of the blarney. Give 
us something more that's new, by the 
powers, even if you write your own book 
over again." 

" Why sartin, Mr. O'Neal, your compli- 
ments are mighty plenty ; and if I could 
shell out ideas as easy as you do words, I 
could soon write another book." 

A 2 



5 INTRODUCTION. 

"Ways ! is that what you want ? Well, 
how odd it is that things are so strangely 
managed in the makin of us up. My idays 
run through me like an hourglass that 
niver wants turnin ; an if I only know'd 
how to scrawl the alphabet, I'd soon dress 
my idays in Sunday clothes : botheration 
to owld Jim Kelly, that chated me out of 
my printice suit, and night school into the 
bargain." 

" Colonel, excuse me for not sooner in- 
troducing my other friend, Monsieur Bo- 
nafice. " 

" How are you, mounsheer ?" 

"Ah! monsieur Colonal, je suis very 
appy for de satisfaction of to say I am tres 
humble servant." 

" Well, mounsheer, where did you come 
up with that name of yours ?" 

" Sare, me — Bonafice ? — from my fader, 
Jacques Bonafice de la Vendee." 

"Well, I don't like it. It sounds so 
much like every thing here in Washington, 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

office^ office; nothing goes down here but 
officer 

" Ah, sare, pardon. It is not d' ofFeece pour 
moi — no sare. Guesta have tell to me he 
have offeece de cuisine inde maison national 
— but is too mush condam to conge — an 
not de good I'argent pour service. More- 
over dan dis, Guesta is chef cuisinier — mais 
but dey not give him d'honeur for sit as 
member of de cuisine — aha — kitchin cabi- 
net. He is confine to de ragouts for de 
bellie, and not have de grand satisfaction 
for compound de grand buget; and so 
soon he make reclamation for dis — vite — 
de snap of de fingar, in de language of de 
grand Shakeyspeer — 

' Otello' occupation, allez vous en.' 

Pardon, sare, I hear from my fren you will 
to write one leetly book. C'est bon la — 
write him — a votre service — can I do 
something, notting for you ?" 
" Yes, mounsheer ; you can buy and trans- 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

late it into your parley-vous, and then they 
will know me in France ; and" — 

" Colonel, excuse me; but here is a third 
friend just stepped in. We'll hear what 
he thinks, and if he agrees, there's three to 
one, and you'll have to write. This is 
Frederick Hummelshine, but w^e generally 
call him Old Fritz." 

" Fitz, did you say ? He don't look like 
he was kin to little Fitz, that I beat for 
Congress." 

" No, no — Fritz ; that's the short of Fre- 
derick." 

"Well, how d'ye do, any how? For 
Fitz has got to be a good friend of mine." 

" So, so, mitUn. I'm as haaty as a puck, 
put I can't jump jist so high." 

"Well, Fritz, don't you think the colo- 
nel ought to write a book?" 

"Apoutwat?" 

" Why he has been travelling through 
the cities, and among them there Yankees, 
and saw a heap of things." 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

" Was he out on te Niagarey reeverj unt 
seen te fals ?" 

" No, I didn't get that far. But I seen a 
heap." 

"Dem is all for no use. It is notting 
like te fals, see onct. Tis Ponyfeece un me 
we'll meet dare ; un I was so shtantin mit 
my pipe like, un could not feel myself a 
tinkin ; un tis Ponyfeece will cum up, un 
he sais to me, Pong^ pong. Well, I tought 
he was a fool ; ten I schmoke akin, un den 
he'll com.e up, un dakes me py te arm, un 
sais, say Pong la. Weil, I dakes mine 
pipe out of my mout, un said to dat leedle 
fellur, ' ko way mit you ; un if I couldn't say 
more as Pong, by te life, I'd say notding at 
all.' Oh, it's a cruel scarey blace dat ; un 
if you could hav said someding apout dat, it 
woult have peen so nice. Put every one 
can't too every ding; so I expect you hat 
petter write, un let all de peoples hear what 
you dit see." 

"I told you so, colonel. Three to one. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

or as they say in Latin, ' Tria junctum in 
unum;' so we must have the hook." 

"Well, I'll tell you what, gentlemen. 
Now it is a pretty middling hard thing, this 
here writing of a hook. A fellow sits down, 
as he supposes, with a bushel of nuts to 
crack, and before he goes far into the bas- 
ket he finds the rest a'n't hulled ; but keep- 
ing in full view my old saying, I'll 



" GO AHEAD." 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 



How many excuses there are in these modern 
days for great men to travel ! 

Some do it to gain popularity and power, others 
to retain what they have ; some travel on the pub- 
lic purse ; others, like men, on their own. 

Some go abroad to serve the republic ; others 
go to serve themselves. 

Some ingloriously stay in their own part of 
the country ; others extend their views abroad, de- 
sirous to know and feel the multiplied blessings 
which are to be found in every part of this happy 
land. 

This. last object had great influence on my mind. 
I had braved the lonely forests of the West ; I had 
shouldered the warrior's rifle in the far South ; but 
the North and East I had never seen. I seemed 
to like members of Congress who came from these 
parts, and wished to know what kind of constitu- 

11 



12 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

ents they had. These considerations, in addition 
to my physician's advice to travel a little for 
my health, induced me to leave Washington on 
the 25th day of April, 1834, and steer for the 
North. 

• At this time the House of Representatives was 
engaged on the appropriation bills, and I knew 
they would consume some two or three weeks , 
and as I had determined and declared that I would 
not vote upon an appropriation bill, until I knew 
where the money was ; and as it had been settled 
by the House that Andrew Jackson was the Gov- 
ernment, and held the nation's money, I concluded 
that the same law which authorized him to seize 
the public treasure, and remove it from where the 
law of the land had placed it, would, by the same 
kind of forced construction, authorize him to dis- 
tribute it at his will. It was of little consequence, 
therefore, for me to remain while those bills were 
under discussion. 

Accordingly, I set out, and during my jour- 
ney I was so agreeably disappointed in almost 
every thing I saw, that I thought my friends 
would be gratified in having a description of the 
same. 

I arrived the same evening at Barnum's Hotel 
in Baltimore. Uncle Davy, as he is often called, 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 13 

was right glad to see me, perhaps because we were 
namesakes ; or may be he always likes to see folks 
patronize his house. He has a pleasant face, any 
how, and his acts don't belie it. No one need look 
for better quarters : if they do, it will be because 
they don't know when they are satisfied. 

Baltimore used to be called Mob-town ; but they 
have got a heap better now, and are more orderly 
than some of their neighbours. Jackson's expe- 
riment has worked wonders. His insolent an- 
swers to their respectable committees, and their 
nearness to Washington, which enables them to see 
the manceuvering of the big and little captains, 
has opened their eyes, and made clever fellows of 
them. I love them, for they are like myself. I 
worshiped the molten image a good while, but 
when he begun to cut his antics, I cut loose. 

Stand your ground, my honest fellows. Your 
monuments mean something. Look at them in- 
scriptions and memorials of your brothers who 
fell at North Point. It was not in man-worship 
they lost their lives. No, it was to defend our 
country when in danger. We are again in danger 
— not of bullets and cannon, but bribery and cor- 
ruption. He who deserts their ranks, and with- 
stands the reward, is twice a Hero. Look at the 
immortal Washinirton on that lofty pillar ; that 
B 



14 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

comes home good to me, and when I saw it, I could 
not for my life help thinking of Moses, when he 
hoisted up the golden serpent to cure the Israelites 
of the poison and venom driven into them by the 
reptiles that crawled among them. Look on him, 
and imitate again and again his powerful virtues. 

Shortly after I arrived, I was called upon, and 
asked to eat supper with a number of gentlemen. I 
went, and passed the evening pleasantly with my 
friend Wilkes and others. 

Early next morning I started for Philadelphia, 
a place where I had never been. I sort of felt 
lonesome as I went down to the steamboat. The 
idea of going among a new people, where there 
are tens of thousands who would pass me by, 
without knowing or caring who I was, who are all 
taken up with their own pleasures, or their own 
business, made me feel small : and indeed if any 
one who reads this book has a grand idea of his 
own importance, let him go to a big city, and he 
will find he is not higher valued than a coon 
skin. 

The steamboat was the Carroll-of-Carrollton, a 
fine craft, with the rum old commodore Chaytor 
for head man. A good fellow he is — all sorts of 
a man — bowing and scraping to the ladies ; nod- 
ding to the gcullemen ; cursing the crew ; and his 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 15 

right eye broad cast upon the " opposition line/' 
all at the same time. " Let go!" said the old one, 
and off we walked in prime style. 

We immediately came past Fort McHenry, just- 
ly celebrated for its gallant defence under Armi- 
stead, Stewartj Nicholson, Newcomb, and others, 
during the last war ; and shortly after we passed 
North Point, where the British landed to make, 
what they never dared, an attack on Baltimore. 

Our passage down the Chesapeake bay was very 
pleasant ; and in a very short run we came to the 
place where we were to get on board of the rail- 
road cars. 

This was a clean new sight to me ; about a 
dozen big stages hung on to one machine, and to 
start up hill. After a good deal of fuss we all 
got seated, and moved slowly off; the engine 
wheezing as if she had the tizzick. By-and-by 
she began to take short breaths, and away we went 
with a blue streak after us. The whole distance 
is seventeen miles, and it was run in fifty-five 
minutes. 

While I was whizzing along, I burst out laugh- 
ing. One of the passengers asked me what it 
was at. "Why," says I, "it's no wonder the 
fellow's horses run off." A Carolina waggoner 
had just crossed the rail-road, from Charleston to 



16 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Augusta, when the engine hove in sight with the 
cars attached. It was growing dark, and the 
sparks were flying in all directions. His horses 
ran off, broke his waggon, and smashed his com- 
bustibles into items. He run to a house for help, 
and when they asked him what scared his horses, 
he said he did not jist know, but it must be hell 
in harn'ess. 

At Delaware City I again embarked on board of 
a splendid steamboat, which ran to Philadelphia. 

When dinner was ready, I sat down with the 
rest of the passengers ; among them was the Rev- 
erend 0. B. Brown, of the Post Office Department, 
who sat near me. During dinner the parson called 
for a bottle of wine, and called on me for a toast. 
Not knowing whether he intended to compliment 
me, or abash me among so many strangers, or have 
some fun at my expense, I concluded to go ahead, 
and give him and his likes a blizzard. So our glasses 
being filled, the word went round, "a toast from Co- 
lonel Cropkett." I gave it as follows : " Here's wish- 
ing the bones of tyrant kings may answer in hell, 
in place of gridirons, to roast the souls of Tories 
on.'^ At this the parson appeared as if he was 
stump't. I said, " Never heed ; it was meant for 
where it belonged." He did not repeat his invi- 
tation, and I eat my dinner quietly. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 17 

After dinner I went up on the deck, and saw 
the captain hoisting three flags. Says I, " What 
does that mean ?" He replied, that he was under 
promise to the citizens of Philadelphia, if I was 
on board, to hoist his flags, as a friend of mine 
had said he expected I would be along soon. 

We went on till we came in sight of the city ; 
and as we advanced towards the wharf, I saw the 
whole face of the earth covered with people, all 
anxiously looking on towards the boat. The cap- 
tain and myself were standing on the. bow-deck ; 
he pointed his finger at me, and the people slung 
t^eir hats, and huzzaed for Colonel Crockett. It 
struck me with astonishment to hear a strange peo- 
ple huzzaing for me, and made me feel sort of 
queer. It took me so uncommon unexpected, as 
I had no idea of attracting attention. But I had 
to meet it, and so I stepped on to the wharf, where 
the folks came crowding round, saying " Give me 
the hand of an honest man." I did not know 
what all this meant ; but some gentlemen took hold 
of me, and pressing through the crowd, put me 
up into an elegant barouche, drawn by four fine 
horses ; they then told me to bow to the people : 
I did so, and with much difficulty we moved ofi". 
The streets were crowded to a great distance, and 
ihe windows full of people, looking out, I supposed, 
b2 



18 f'OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

to see the wild man. I thought I had rather be 
in the wilderness with my gun and dogs, than to 
be attracting all that fuss. I had never seen the 
like before, and did not know exactly what to say 
or do. After some time we reached the United 
States Hotel in Chesnut street. I suppose they 
took me there because it was opposite to the rob- 
bed bank, and which the robbers called a " mon- 
ster," so that the varmints might be near one 
another. 

The crowd had followed me, filling up the 
street, and pressing into the house to shake hands. 
I was conducted up stairs, and walked out on a 
platform, drew off my hat, and bowed round to 
the people. They cried from all quarters, "A 
speech, a speech. Colonel Crockett." 

After the noise had quit, so I could be heard, I 
said to them the following words. 

"gentlemen op PHILADELPHIA, 

" My visit to your city is rather accidental. I 
had no expectation of attracting any uncommon 
attention. I am travelling for my health, without 
the least wish of exciting the people in such times 
of high political feeling. I do not wish to encou- 
rage it. I am unable at this time to find language 
suitable to return my gratitude to the citizens of 
Philadelphia. However, I am almost induced to 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 19 

believe it flattery — perhaps a burlesque. This is 
new to me, yet I see nothing but friendship in 
your faces ; and if your curiosity is to hear the 
backwoodsman, I will assure you I am illy prepared 
to address this most enlightened people. How- 
ever, gentlemen, if this is a curiosity to you, if 
you will meet me to-morrow, at one o'clock, I 
will endeavour to address you in my plain man- 
ner." So I made my obeisance to them, and retired 
into the house. 

After night, when I could walk out unknown, I 
went up street or down, I don't know which, but 
took good care not to turn any corners, for fear I 
might get lost. I soon found that the streets were 
laid off square. This I thought was queer enough 
for a Quaker city, for they don't generally come 
up square to nothing : even their coats have a kind 
of slope, at least so they have cut Mister Penn's 
coat in the capitol. This may be wrong, too, for 
I was told that when the man who made him first 
knocked off " the kivers" of the house where he 
worked at him, he had cut out Mister Penn with a 
regular built continental cocked hat on ; and it was 
so much laughed at, to see such a hat on a Quaker, 
that as soon as Congress rose, he cut off his head, 
and worked on a new one, with a rale sloped broad 
brim. Which is th^ honest George Fox hat, I 



20 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

leave for Philadelphia lawyers and parsons to 
decide. 

When I went to my room, and got to bed, I 
could not sleep, thinking over all that passed, and 
my promise also to speak next day : but at last 1 
composed myself with the reflection that I had 
got through many a scrape before, as those who 
have read my other book well know, — and they 
ought not to read this till they go through t'other, 
— so I thought I'd trust again to good luck. 

Next morning I had the honor of being called 
on by some old friends whom I knew at Washing- 
ton — Judge Baldwin, Judge Hemphill, John Sar- 
geant, and others, and I took it right kind in them 
to do so. 

Early after breakfast I was taken to the Water- 
works, where I saw several of the gentlemen mana- 
gers. This is a grand sight, and no wonder the Phi- 
ladelphians ask every one that comes, "have you 
seen the Water-works ?" Just think of a few 
wheels throwing up more water than two hundred 
thousand people can use : yes, and waste, too ; for 
such scrubbing of steps, and even the very pave- 
ments under your feet, I never saw. Indeed, I 
looked close, to see if the housemaids had not 
web-feet, they walked so well in water ; and as 
for a fire, it has no chance at all : they just screw 



COL. CROCKETT'S 'lOUR. 21 

on a long hollow leather with a brass nose on it, 
dash up stairs, and seem to draw on Noah's flood. 

The next place I visited was the Mint. Here I 
saw them coining gold and silver in abundance, 
and they were the rale "e pluribus unum ;" not 
this electioneering trash, that they sent out to cheat 
the poor people, telling them they would all be 
paid in gold and silver, when the poor deceived 
creatures had nothing coming to them. A chip 
with a spit on the back of it, is as good currency 
as an eagle, provided you can't get the image of 
the bird. It's all nonsense. Andrew Jackson, 
both cabinets and Congress to boot, can't enact 
poor men into rich. Hard knocks, and plenty of 
them, can only build up a fellow's self Look at 
my other book, and see how much of the curse of 
Adam's fall I bore, and tell me if I haven't a right 
to speak on this poor man subject. 

I asked if the workmen never stole any of the 
coin. They said not : they got used to it. Well, 
I thought that was what my parson would call 
heterodox doctrine ; that the longer a man was in 
temptation, the more he would not sin. But I let 
it pass, for I had heard that they had got " new 
lights" in this city, and of course, new and genuine 
doctrines — so that the Bible-doxy stood no chance. 
I could not help, barring the doctrine, giving these 



22 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

honest men great credit ; especially when I recol- 
lected an old sanctimoniouslyfied fellow, who made 
his negroes whistle while they were picking cher- 
ries, for fear they should eat some. 

From the Mint I was taken to the Asylum for 
insane persons, went though different apartments, 
saw men and women, some quite distracted, others 
not so bad. This was a very unpleasant sight. 
I am not able, nor do I wish I was able, to de- 
scribe it. I felt monstrous solemn, and could 
not help thanking God I was not one of them ; 
and I felt grateful in their stead to that city for 
caring for those who could not take care of them- 
selves, and feeding them that heeded not the hand 
and heart that provided for them. 

On returning to the hotel, the hour had nearly 
arrived when I was to visit the Exchange. I asked 
Colonel Dorrance, the landlord, to go with me. Ho 
is a very clever man, and made me feel quite at 
home in his house. Whoever goes there once, 
will go back again. So he agreed, and off we 
started. 

I had made set speeches in Congress, and es- 
pecially on my Tennessee land bill, when all 
my colleagues were against me ; now I believe 
they will all go for it, whether from the force of 
the aro;uments or the force of home opinions, 1 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 23 

leave them to decide. I had made stump speeches 
at home, in the face of all the little office yelpers 
who were opposed to me ; but, indeed, when I got 
within sight of the Exchange, and saw the streets 
crowded, I most wished to take back my promise ; 
but I was brought up by hearing a youngster say, 
as I passed by, " Go ahead, Davy Crockett.^' I 
said to myself, " I have faced the enemy ; these are 
friends. I have fronted the savage red man of 
the forest ; these are civilized. I'll keep cool, and 
let them have it." 

I was conducted to the house of a Mr. Neil; 
where I met several gentlemen, and took some 
refreshment, not passing by a little Dutch courage. 
Of the latter there was plenty ; and I observed the 
man of the house, when he asked me to drink, he 
didn't stand by to see what I took, but turned 
away, and told me to help myself. That's what I 
call genteel. 

Arrived at the Exchange, I crowded through, 
went up to the second floor, and walked out on 
the porch, drew off my hat, and made my bow : 
speaking was out of the question, the huzzas for 
Crockett were so loud and so long. 

The time had come when my promise must be 
kept. There must have been more than five thou- 
sand people, and they were still gathering from 



24 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

all parts. I was now loudly called for from all quar- 
ters to begin. I could not help again thinking what 
a poor type I was to stand up before such an en- 
lightened people ; but screwing up my fortitude, I 
commenced as foHows. 

"gentlemen and fellow citizens op 
philadelphia, 

"I have no doubt I will owe you an apology 
before I am done, for this attempt. I make it in 
obedience to your call, and not from self-will. 

" Having been cut out of my speech in Con- 
gress, by the ' previous question,' (which means 
leaving the question under debate, and jirking a 
fellow up to vote on he don't know what, or leave 
to say why or wherefore, pro nor con, but keep 
your eye on the fugleman,) on the great subject that 
now agitates the nation, I have come to the conclu- 
sion, — wise or foolish it is not for me to say, my 
crows, of course, being as white as my neighbours, — 
I have come to the conclusion that I owe the coun- 
try a speech, and no matter where I make it ; and 
as it is very probable I may not be ' called to or- 
der' here, I will try and give you my views upon 
the situation of our country ; and, in doing so, I 
hope the citizens of Philadelphia will appreciate 
my want of education to enable me to address you 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 25 

in the language which is becoming a representative 
of this great nation. You shall have it in my own 
plain way ; and of one thing I assure you — you 
will be at no loss to understand me, if I under- 
stand myself : for of all the despisable creatures 
on the face of this here God's globe, I despise 
most your non-committal skulking politician, whe- 
ther he be high, or low, or middle way. He 
a'n't worth the powder that would kill him, and 
he ought to be stoned to death, like a mischevious 
stray. 

" In the first place, then, gentlemen, I will call 
your attention back to a period only nine months 
ago. We saw our country blessed with the best 
currency, the best circulating medium in the world; 
our commerce flourishing, and our manufactories 
all prosperously engaged ; the labouring commu- 
nity receiving the rewards of their toil, from the 
humblest to the highest ; and the products of the 
earth bearing back a generous reward to the man 
who watered her dust with the sweat of his brow. 
View the present time ; make the comparison ; and 
you will see our circulating medium destroyed, our 
commerce blasted, and our whole manufacturing 
interest paralyzed ; and for what ? Just to gratify 
the ambition of one superannuated old man ; that 
he might wreak his vengeance upon the United 
C 



26 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

States Bank ; and for what ? Just because it re- 
fused to lend its aid in upholding his corrupt 
party. 

The truth is, I may have misunderstood this 
government, as I am from far back in the woods ; 
but agreeable to my understanding, it was to re- 
deem us from the government of one man, that so 
many of our brave patriots perished before the 
British arms during our revolutionary war. They 
sacrificed their lives and fortunes in obtaining a 
constitution and government of laws. We did 
gain them, and have lived the most happy people 
under the sun for fifty years ; but, alas! in 1834^ 
we again see one man seize the sword in one hand, 
and the purse in the other, and saying, * I am the 
government — my will shall be the law of the 
land.' 

" Sirs, what has he not done ? Has he not seized 
upon the treasury of the nation, setting Congress 
and the people at defiance, and removed it from 
where the law had placed it, with violence and 
precipitancy, and yet with impunity ? And what 
is worse, to see a set of hirelings sustaining him 
in his lawless act, is disheartening to every lover 
of his country. 

"Let us go back, and review his pledges while 
he was seeking the office he now holds, and com- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 27 

pare them with his course since he has been in 
power, and see how they tally as to consistency. 

"You have seen or heard of his famous letter to 
Mr. Munroe in 1823, when he said to him to de- 
stroy the monster party, and be the president of 
the people. From this the American people had 
a right to expect Andrew Jackson to destroy party 
and party feelings, as he had recommended ; but 
what did we see when he came into power ? His 
course was widely different. It blasted and cursed 
the country, and dried up the hopes of every libe- 
ral man. He drew his office sword, and the first 
inquiry was, who has had the audacity to vote 
against the * greatest and best.' The man that 
has done so must go down ; he is not fit for office, 
his services are no longer wanted. The next was, 
who has huzzaed loudest^ not longest — for he was 
even ungrateful to his old ffiends — for Andrew 
Jackson ; that man is qualified to fill any station 
in the government ; and we saw worthy men, who 
had grown grey in honorable service of their 
country, hurled from office to make way for one 
of these yelpers. 

" Gentlemen, what kind of republicanism do 
you call this ? I had always thought that the true 
republicanism was, for every man in this boasted 
land of liberty to vote for whom he pleased, and 



28«^ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

no man had a right to censure his motives. There 
is not the shadow of republicanism in sentiments 
or conduct different from this. 

" Have you a government of laws, or have you 
the government of one man? — a unit — a solitary 
^responsibility;' one who consults, but takes no 
advice ; who calls his secretaries together for a 
sham, to make them think big of themselves, and 
the moment their backs are turned, are supplanted 
with the interested advice of one who, like Judas, 
stays behind to betray ; or, having hid his dirty 
basket behind the curtains, only pulls out, when 
the others have gone, what offal he has scavengered 
during the day, sprinkled with the chloride of 
flattery and falsehood. Be him secretary, auditor, 
district attorney, or who he may, afraid of the 
light and of investigation, he lurks and prowls at 
night, in secret and alone, solely to save himself 
or hangers on, or to glut his vengeance on some 
one within whose atmosphere of patriotism and 
integrity he cannot breathe. 

"Go down to Washington, gentlemen, not to 
seek office, but to be a calm observer of passing 
scenes, if you want to find out what Jacksonism is. 

"Let there be any question to be decided, which 
the old fellow has set his heart on, and sworn by 
the Eternal how it should go, and you w^ill see all 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 29 

the small-fry as busy as pismires, and the big bugs 
drumming up the drones, and cursing them by 
their god, Andrew, if they don't do so and so. 
And then let this supposed measure be carried, 
and what a farce it is to see them pitch off to the 
white house, and praise themselves, not for the 
good tliey have done, but for maneuvering to bring 
about his high and mighty will! 

"Many other like scenes might be witnessed, 
all going to convince you of the humbling truth, 
that if we have a government, Andrew Jackson 
is it. 

"When Caesar undertook to overthrow the Ro- 
man republic, he demanded the keys from the secre- 
tary ; and he refused, and said that no person had 
a right to demand that except the Roman senate. 
Then Csesar shook his finger at the secretary, and 
said, 'Caesar could as easy take your life, as he 
could will it.' The secretary knew that if Csesar 
was to take a sword, and sever his head from his 
body, the Roman people were so wrapped up in 
Caesar, that they believed he could not err — just 
like the American people is wrapped up in An- 
drew Jackson. They believe he cannot err. 

" Just view his course when he ordered William 
J. Duane to remove the deposites. He answered 
his conscience did not approve of it, nor did his 
c2 



30 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

duty require it. In a few hours he got his walking 
ticket that his services were no longer wanted, 
and he was compelled to be off; with the frowns 
of a tyrant at his back, with all the litter of ve- 
nomous pups barking at his heels. But he saw 
ahead of him the smiles and approving faces of 
honest men ; and I warrant you he sleeps sounder 
than him who came in after him. 

" Then Jackson took his Taney, and said, ' I take 
the responsibility.' Ah, gentlemen, that word 
^responsibility' has but little terror on his mind, 
when he can uproot our best institutions, and hurl 
the best men in our country from office, at his will, 
for daring to do their duty, and exercise their 
liberty. Yet the people have said it is right — 
Jackson done it. 

" Our forefathers' toils and struggles are all for- 
gotten, and we have returned to the good old days 
of '76 — to the government of one man. 

" Upon this great question, gentlemen, I stand 
alone from my state in Congress ; and I rejoice 
that I had fortitude to serve my country, in- 
stead of worshipping an idol. I would rather 
be politically damned than hypocritically immor 
tali zed. 

" I have told my colleagues that the time and 
the questions would come when I would not stand 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 31 

alone in opposition to Andrew Jackson. More 
than one of them has had reason to feel his venom ; 
and, if we live, we will see them at him, open 
mouthed, like my bear-dogs ; for there a'n't a bit 
of love between them. 

"I was one of the first men that fired a gun 
under Andrew Jackson. I helped to throw around 
him that blaze of glory, that is blasting and blight- 
ing every thing it comes in contact with. I know 
I have equal rights with him, and so has every 
man that is not a slave ; and when he is violating 
the constitution and the laws, I will oppose him, 
let the consequences to me be what they may. 

" Thank God, I have constituents who think I 
am honest in my opposition to the present pro- 
ceedings. They know how to think for them- 
selves, and scorn the dictation of any man, be him 
of high or low degree. I am willing to trust 
them ; and we will see whether I will not count 
my hundreds of majorities, where others, who feel 
as I do, but do not come out, will only boast of 
their tens. 

" Gentlemen, the question is decided that the 
law of the land is Andrew Jackson's will, and 
when we are beaten, I suppose we must surrender ; 
but I still cling to one hope. It is said, and truly, 
that all power is in tlie people 5 and if so, the time 



22 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

is shortly coming when they must and will show 
their power, by sustaining the laws and the con- 
stitution. The stars and stripes must never give 
way to the shreds and patches of party. 

" Gentlemen, I hope you will excuse my plain 
manner of speaking. I must close. I thank you 
for your patience and polite attention." 

Three times three cheers closed the concern, 
and I came down to the door, where it appeared as 
if all the world had a desire to shake hands with 
me. I stood on the door-step, and, as major Jack 
Downing said, shook hands as hard as I could 
spring for near an hour. After this I returned to 
the hotel, and remained until night, when I was 
asked to visit the theatre in Walnut street. The 
landlord, Dorrance, and others were to go with me, 
to see Jim Crow. While we were talking about 
it, one of them said he could go all over the world 
" Tu crow juicy." Some laughed very hearty, 
and others did not. I was among the latter, for I 
considered it a dry joke, although there was some- 
thing juicy in it. Some of them said it was 
Latin ; and that proved to me the reason why I did 
not laugh — I was tired of the " old Roman." 
But these Philadelphians are eternally cutting up 
jokes on words j so I puts a conundrum to them; 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 33 

and says I, " Can you tell me why the sacking 
of Jerusalem was like a cider mill?" Well, they 
all were stump t, and gave it up. " Because it made 
the Jews fly." Seeing them so much pleased with 
this, says I, "Why is a cow like a razor-grinder?" 
No one could answer. " Well," says I, " I thought 
you could find that out, for I don't know myself." 

We started for the theatre, and found a very full 
house, and Jim a playing for the dear life. Jim 
makes as good a nigger as if he was clean black, 
except the bandy-legs. 

Everybody seemed pleased, particularly when I 
laughed ; they appeared to act as if I knew ex- 
actly when to laugh, and then they all followed. 

What a pity it is that these theatres are not so 
contrived that everybody could go ; but the fact 
is, backwoodsman as I am, I have heard some 
things in them that was a leetle too tough for good 
women and modest men ; and that's a great pity, 
because there are thousands of scenes of real life 
that might be exhibited, both for amusement and 
edification, without offending. Folks pretend to 
say that high people don't mind these things. 
Well, it may be that they are better acquainted 
with vice than we plain folks ; but I am yet to live 
and see a woman polished out of the natural feel- 



2^ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

mgs, or two high not to do things that a'n't quite 
reputable in those of low degree. 

Their fiddling was pretty good, considering 
every fellow played his oAvn piece ; and I would 
have known more about it, if they had played a 
tune, but it was all twee-wee-tadlum-tadlum-tum- 
tum,tadle-leedle-tadle-leedle-lee. " The twenty-se- 
cond of February,'^ or the "Cuckoo's Nest," would 
have been a treat. 

I do not think, however, from all I saw, that the 
people enjoyed themselves better than we do at a 
country frolic, where we dance till daylight, and 
pay off the score by giving one in our turn. It 
would do you good to see our boys and girls 
dancing. None of your stradling, mincing, sady- 
ing; but a regular sifter, cut-the-buckle, chicken- 
flutter set-to. It is good wholesome exercise ; and 
when one of our boys puts his arm round his 
partner, it's a good hug, and no harm in it. 

Next morning I was waited on by some gentle- 
men, who presented me with a seal for my watch- 
chain, wiiich cost forty dollars. I told them I 
always accepted a present, as a testimony of friend- 
ship. The engraving on the stone represents the 
great match race, two horses in full speed, and 
over them the words "Go ahead." It is the 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 35 

finest seal I ever saw ; and when I returned to 
Washington, the members ahnost used it up, mak 
ing copies to send all over the country. 

I was hardly done making my bow to these 
gentlemen, before Mr. James M. Sanderson inform- 
ed me that the young whigs of Philadelphia had a 
desire to present me with a fine rifle, and had 
chosen him to have her made agreeably to my 
wishes. I told him that was an article that I knew 
somewhat about, and gave him the size, weight, &c. 

You can't imagine how I was crowded to get 
through every thing. Colonel Pulaski called to 
take me in his carriage to the Naval Hospital, 
where they stow away the old sailors on dry land, 
and a splendid building it is ; all made of marble. 
I did not like the situation ; but I suppose it was 
the best they could get, with so much ground to it. 

From there we went to the Navy Yard, and 
examined the largest ship ever made in the United 
States. She was what they call "in the stocks," 
and I then thought we would never have any use 
for her. In this I may be mistaken. If Congress 
takes Andrew Jackson at his word, and lets him 
loose, God help the poor parley vous : he'd grin 
them to death while we were getting that big ship 
and all the little ones to rights. 

I then surveyed the artillery, and the balance 



36 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

of the shipping, not forgetting to pay my respects 
to the officers of the yard, and then returned home 
with tlie colonel, where I was kindly treated, both 
in eating and drinking ; and so ended another day. 

Next morning the land admiral, Colonel Ree- 
side, asked me to call on him, and take a ride. I 
did so ; and he carried me out to the rail-road and 
Schuylkill bridge. I found that the rail-road was 
finished near a hundred miles into the interior of 
the state, and is only one out of many ; yet they 
make no fuss about it. I suppose it is because 
there is no speculating in the stocks ; no regency 
banks, to hoist them up with one lie, and then sell 
out ; and then turn round and knock them down 
with another, and all to buy in again. Never 
mind ; God can't prosper the people that do so. 
What is got over the devil's back, is sure to be 
spent under his bellie. 

We drove in past the Girard school — that old 
man that give so many millions to Philadelphia, 
and cut out his kin with a crumb. Well, thinks I, 
blood is thicker than water, and the remembrance 
of friends better than a big name. I'd have made 
them all rich, and give away the balance. But, 
maybe, French people don't think like me. 

This being my last night in Philadelphia, Dor- 
i-ance gave me what they call a "pick knick" sup-2i 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 37 

per ; which means as much as me and all my com- 
pany could eat and drink, and nothing to pay. 

I forgot to say that I had spent part of the even- 
ing before this with Colonel Saint. 

Next morning, Wednesday the 29th, I was in- 
vited by Captain Jenkins, of the steamboat New 
Philadelphia, to go on with him to New York. I 
accepted his offer, and started. I saw nothing very 
particular along the Delaware river, except the 
place where all the hard stone-coal comes to, from 
the interior of Pennsylvania ; where, I am told, 
they have mountains of it. After some time, we 
got upon a rail-road, where they say we run twen- 
ty-five miles to the hour. I can only judge of 
the speed by putting my head out to spit, which I 
did, and overtook it so quick, that it hit me smack 
in the face. We soon arrived at Amboy, and 
took the water again ; and soon came in sight of 
the great city of New York, and a bulger of a 
place it is. The number of the ships beat me all 
hollow, and looked for all the world like a big 
clearing in the West, with the dead trees all 
standing. 

When we swung round to the wharf, it was 
covered with people, who inquired if I was on 
board ; and when the captain told them I was, 
they slung their hats, and gave three cheers. 

*4 "^ 



38 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Immediately a committee came on board, repre- 
senting the young whigs, and informed me they 
were appointed to wait upon me, and invite me to 
the American Hotel. I accepted their offer, and 
went with them to the hotel, where I was friendly 
received ; conducted to a large parlour, where I 
was introduced to a great many gentlemen. 

I was invited to visit the new and elegant fire 
engine, and took some refreshment with the ma- 
nagers, and returned in time to visit the Park 
theatre, and see Miss Fanny Kemble play in grand 
style. The house was better filled, and the fixings 
looked nicer, than the one in Philadelphia ; but 
any of them is good enough, if they have such 
pretty play-actors as Miss Kemble. In fact, she is 
like a handsome piece of changeable silk ; first one 
colour, then another, but always the clean thing. 

I returned home, as I am told all great folks do, 
after the lady actor was done ; and, sitting with my 
friends, the cry of '"'nrc, fire," struck my ear. I 
bounced from my chair, and ran for my hat. " Sit 
down, colonel," said one of the gentlemen, "it's 
not near us." — " A'n't you going to help to put it 
out?" — "No," said he, laughing, "we have fire 
companies here, and we leave it to them." Well, 
to me this seemed queer enough, for at home I 
would have jumped on the first horse at hand, and 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 39 

rode full flight bare-backed, to help put out a 
fire. 

I forgot that I was in a city where you may live, 
as they tell me, years, and not know who lives 
next door to you ; still, I felt curious to see how 
they managed ; and Colonel Jackson went with 
me. As it was late, the engines were only assem- 
bling when we got there ; but when they began to 
spirt, they put out a four-story house that was all 
in a blaze, in less than no time. I asked the 
colonel where they got so much water from. He 
said it was raised by the Manhattan Bank, out of 
a charter got by Aaron Burr. I could not help 
thinking it was well the Regency did not get hold 
of such a monopoly, and put it down : but I re- 
collected that same Burr was said to be kin, or sort 
a kin, of the "Magician ;" or, at all events, brung 
him up, and showed him all the tricks of the cards : 
and then I recollected in the Taney report, that 
this was a pet bank, and its cashier brother to a 
mighty clever member of Congress : so I just con- 
cluded in my own mind, that they kept up this 
water to squirt on people's houses, and the people 
let them manage the money as they pleased. 

Next morning I was invited by Colonel Mapes 
to walk down to some of the newspaper offices. I 



40 COL. CROCKETT'B TOUR. 

proposed to go to the Courier and Enquirer and 
Star offices : we did so. I like Webb, for he 
comes out plump with what he has to say. Mr. 
Noah has another way of using a fellow up : he 
holds him uneasy; laughs at him, and makes other 
folks do so ; teazes him ; roasts him, until he don't 
know what ails him, nor what hurt him, but he 
can't help limping. 

We went into Pearl street ; and I could not help 
wondering if they had as many boxes and bags 
and things inside of the houses as they had out. 
Elegant place for a lame man to walk, for every 
one is like him — first up, then down ; then one 
side, then another, like a pet in a squirrel box. 
Shortly VvO came to the Exchange — the place 
where the merchants assemble every day at one 
o'clock, to hear all they can, and tell as little as 
possible ; and where two lines from a knowing 
correspondent, prudently used, may make a for- 
tune. 

I had not been lon^ here before I was surround- 
ed, and called on for a speech. I made many apolo- 
gies, but none seem'd to hit right ; and was so hard 
pressed, that I had no corner to get into : so, taking 
my stand upon the steps above them, I spoke as 
follows, to w^it : 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 41 

" Gentlemen, 

'^ My object was not to attract attention ; I 
am travelling to see your country and improve 
my health, and had no wish to speak in this 
great city. New York is the London of America, 
the Big Prairie of the north, the Mississippi 
of commerce ; and I assure you my opportunities 
have not been such as should permit me to address 
such an enlightened audience of people as I sup- 
pose myself surrounded with. However, I find it 
would be hard to get off; and as my motto is, 
* Go ahead,' I will therefore give you my views 
upon the great question that has shook this once 
happy government to its centre. 

'' I see you all in a state of excitement ; and what 
is the cause of it ? We have had a government 
for fifty odd years, administered by a Washington, 
an elder Adams, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Monroe, 
a younger Adams, and a hero of two wars ; and 
1 venture to say, that never was there a time when 
this country was in such excitement as at present. 
There must be something wrong in the political 
affairs of the nation : yes, gentlemen, and you are 
beginning to feel it here. 

"I am truly sorry that my abilities are not such 

^as enable me to explain this matter to my own 

satisfaction. One thing I will say, that our govern- 
d2 



42 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

meiit, that is, Andrew Jackson, has begun a change 
that has brought alarm upon our best men. 

" It has been common to petition our legislative 
councils for relief ; and some respect was paid to 
the voice of the people thus constitutionally ex- 
pressed. But is this the case now ? Have not the 
citizens of your country memorialized Congress 
for relief — and to what effect ? None. Your peti- 
tions are unheard, or at least not attended to. 
Your petitions have been conveyed away to a 
committee-room, never again to be lieard from. 
Even your bearers of petitions are forbid, as such, 
to enter the palace, or appear before his majesty's 
presence. Has this been usual ? No, sirs ; it is 
entirely new, and ought to be alarming to every 
lover of our republican government. 

" We are completely under the government of 
one man. He wields both sword and purse ; and 
yet a majority of the House of Representatives 
say Amen. 

" I thank God for giving me fortitude enough to 
stand firm, and support the constitution and the 
laws. I stand alone from my state ; but I glory 
in what they consider my sin and shame. I have 
been the true and honest supporter of Andrew 
Jackson. I have fought under him, and was proud 
that my statesman was the choice of the American 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 43 

people to wield the distinies of this nation. I sup- 
ported him because I liked his professed princi- 
ples, not because his name was Andrew Jackson. 
Name is nothing but an empty sound. I have sup- 
ported principles, and will stick to them : and when 
the best interests of my country is threatened, I 
will sound the alarm, be it in New York or else- 
where. This I consider to be the duty of a public 
servant ; and this is what stimulates me to speak 
in your presence. I know I speak the truth ; and 
you know it too. Is it come to this, that our happy 
country is to be destroyed, to gratify the ambition 
of one man ? Has it come to this, that our legisla- 
tive body shall be a nuisance, and the people cry 
Amen? 

" Sirs, Andrew Jackson says that he will veto 
any law that passes Congress, and does not pass by 
two-thirds, and does not meet his notions. This is 
virtually saying, ' My will shall be the law of the 
land ; I care not what my predecessors have said 
or done ; I care not what the supreme court has 
decided, if I don't think so too.' 

'' It is not to be expected that we can get two- 
thirds of Congress to hardly any bill ; and there- 
fore, this power, thus construed by him, is almost 
unlimited. 

" Gentlemen, I have said more than I intended, 



44 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

and must close, thanking you for your polite at- 
tention to me, a stranger among you." 

I returned to the hotel, where I found a great 
many gentlemen waiting to see the wild man from 
the far West. After spending some time with them, 
I was taken to Peale's museum. I shall not attempt 
to describe the curiosities here ; it is above my 
bend. I could not help, however, thinking what 
pleasure or curiosity folks could take in sticking 
up whole rows of little bugs, and such like var- 
mints. I saw a boy there that had been born with- 
out any hands or arms ; and he took a pair of scis- 
sors in his toes, and cut his name in full, and gave 
it to me. This I called a miracle. 

From thence I went to the City Hall, and was 
introduced to the mayor of the city and several of 
the aldermen. The mayor is a plain, common- 
sense-looking man. I was told he had been a tan- 
ner : that pleased me ; for I thought both him and 
me had clum up a long way from where we start- 
ed : and it is truly said, ^ Honour and fame from 
no condition rise.' It's the grit of a fellow that 
makes the man. 

On my return, I received an invitation from 
Colonel Draper to dine with him, informing me 
also, that the rale Major Jack Downing was ex- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 45 

pected, to be there. When the hour arrived, I 
started to walk there, as it was but a short distance. 
On my way I saw a white man, who was in a great 
rage, cursing a white man-servant. I stopped, and 
said to him, " Hellow, mister ! if you was to talk 
that way to a white man in my country, he'd give 
you first-rate hell." He looked at me, and said 
nothing, but walked off. Sure enough, when I got 
to Colonel Draper's, I was introduced to the ma- 
jor. We sat down to a splendid dinner, and amused 
ourselves with some good jokes. But as this was 
a private party, I don't think it gentlemanly to tell 
what was said at this time, and especially as this 
was not the only communication I had with the 
major. One observation, however, was made by 
him, and I gave him an answer which could not 
offend anybody. " Colonel," says he, " what d'ye 
sort o' think about gineral matters and things in 
purticlur?" Knowing him to be a yankee, I tried 
to answer him in his own way. So, says I, " Ma- 
jor, the G inneral's matters are all wrong ; but some 
purticklar things are very well : such, for instance, 
as the honour I have in dining with you at Colonel 
Draper's." — " Good!" says the major, "and we'll 
talk about them there matters some other time." — 
"Agreed," says I, " major, always at your sarvice." 
I found a large company waiting for me when I 



46 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

got back to the hotel, and an invitation to sup with 
the young Whigs. Well, now, thinks I, they had 
better keep some of these things to eat for some- 
body else, for Pm sure I'm as full as a young cub. 
But right or wrong, I must go in. There I met 
the honourable Augustine S. Clayton, of Georgia, 
and was right glad to see him, for I knew I could 
get him to take some of the speaking off of me. 
He speaks prime, and is always ready, and never 
goes off half-cock. 

Gulian C. Verplanck was also there — an honest 
man, that was badly treated ; but I hope still he 
will be honoured as he deserves. 

Upwards of one hundred sat down to supper. 
They were going to toast me, but I told some of 
them near me to toast Judge Clayton first ; that 
there should be more rejoicing over one that was 
lost and found again, than over ninety-and-nine 
such as me, that had never strayed away. They 
did so : and he made a speech that fairly made the 
tumblers hop. He rowed the Tories up and over 
Salt river. 

Then they toasted me as " the undeviating sup- 
porter of the constitution and laws." I made a 
short speech, and concluded with the story of " the 
Red Cow," which was, that as long as General 
Jackson went strait, I followed him ; but when 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 47 

he began to go this way, and that way, and 
every way, I wouldn't go after him : like the 
boy whose master ordered him to plough across 
the field to the red cow. Well, he began to plough, 
and she began to walk 5 and he ploughed all fore- 
noon after her. So when the master came, he 
swore at him for going so crooked. " Why, sir," 
said the boy, " you told me to plough to the red 
cow, and I kept after her, but she always kept 
moving." 

Next morning, being the first day of May, I 
went to some of the newspaper offices, read the 
news, and returned to take a ride with Colonel S. 
D. Jackson, in an elegant barouche. We drove up 
the city, and took a view of the improvements and 
beautiful houses in the new part. By the time we 
returned down Broadway, it seemed to me that 
the city was flying before some awful calamity. 
" Why," said I, " colonel, what under heaven is 
the matter ? Everybody appears to be pitching 
out their furniture, and packing it ofi'." He laugh- 
ed, and said this was the general " mooving day." 
Such a sight nobody ever saw, unless it was in this 
same city. It seemed a kind of frolic, as if they 
were changing houses just for fun. Every street 
was crowded with carts, drays, and people. So the 
world goes. It would take a good deal to get me 



48 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

out of my log house j but here, I understand, many 
persons " moove" every year. 

Having alighted, and taken some refreshment, I 
asked Colonel Webb to go with me to the " Five- 
points," a noted place near the centre of the city. 
This is the place where Van Buren's warriors came 
from during the election, when the w^ild Irish, 
with their clubs and bludgeons, knocked down 
every one they could find that would not huzza for 
Jackson. However, I had a great curiosity to see 
them; and on we went, the major and me, and in 
the midst of that great city we came to a place 
where five streets all come together ; and from this 
it takes the name of the " Five-points." The 
buildings are little, old, frame houses, and looked 
like some little country village. The houses all had 
cellars; and as that day was fashionable to moove, 
they were mooving too. The streets looked like 
a clearing, in my part of the world, as they were 
emptying and burning the straw out of their beds. 
It appeared as if the cellars was jam full of people ; 
and such fidling and dancing nobody ever saw be- 
fore in this world. I thought they were the true 
" heaven-borns." Black and white, white and 
black, all hug-em-snug together, happy as lords 
and ladies, sitting sometimes round in a ring, with 
a jug of liquor between them : and I do think I 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 49 

saw more drunk folks, men and women, that day, 
than I ever saw before. This is part of what is 
called by the Regency the "glorious sixth ward" — 
the regular Van Buren ground-floor. I thought 1 
would rather risque myself in an Indian fight than 
venture among these creatures after night. I said 
to the colonel, " God deliver me from such consti- 
tuents, or from a party supported by such. In my 
country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a 
first-rate gentleman ; but these are worse than 
savages ; they are too mean to swab hell's kitchen." 
He took me to the place where the election was 
held. It appeared to me that all the place round 
was made ground, and that there was more room 
in the houses under-ground than above : and I sup- 
pose there must have been a flood of rain during 
the election, which forced those rats out of their 
holes. There is more people stowed away together 
here than any place I ever saw. I heard a story, 
and it is asserted to be true, that about here, some 
years ago, a committee visited all the houses, to 
see how they were coming on. One house, that 
was four stories high, and four rooms on a floor, 
had sixteen families in it, and four in the garret, 
which was divided into four parts by a streak of 
charcoal. An old lady, that was spinning up there, 
was asked how they made out. She said, pretty 
E 



50 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

well ; and that they would be quiet enough if it 
was not for the old woman in the opposite corner, 
and she took boarders, and they often made a noise. 
I believe it is true. What a miserable place a city 
is for poor people : they are half starved, poorly 
clothed, and perished for fire. I sometimes won- 
der they don't clear out to a new country, where 
every skin hangs by its own tail : but I suppose 
they think an hour's indulgence in vice is sweet 
enough for the bitter of the rest. 

Coming home, I took notice that the rear of the 
City Hall was of brown stone, while the front and 
sides were of white marble. I asked the colonel 
why that was so. He said the Poor-house stood 
behind when they built the Hall. That is like 
many a great man : if he gets a fine breast to his 
jackett, he'll make the back of fustian — and like 
thousands of great people, who think that any thing 
will do for poor folks to look at, or eat, or wear. 
Another thing seemed queer to me, and that was a 
bell hanging outside of the steeple of the Hall. It 
was so big they could not get it in, and rather than 
lose the money, they hung it outside ; never re- 
flecting that even a backwoodsman must laugh at 
such a Dutch blunder. 

On the same walk I was introduced to the ho- 
nourable Albert Gallatin. He had an old straw 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 51 

hat in his hand, and, like everybody else, was 
*^^mooving," and said he was sorry not to have 
more time to be acquainted with me. He pointed 
to the house he was leaving, and said it and seve- 
ral others were to be torn down to build a big 
tavern. It was a very fine house, fit for any man 
to live in ; but in a few hours I saw men on top 
of it, and before the next evening, the daylight was 
through it. This tavern is to be near the park, 
and is building by John Jacob Astor. It is to cost 
seven hundred thousand dollars, and covers a whole 
square. Mr. Astor, I am told, begun business in 
New York as a dealer in furs, and is now worth 
millions. Lord help the beavers and otters! they 
must have most got used to getting skinned by 
this time. And what a meeting of friends and kin 
there must have been in his warehouse. "Farewell," 
said the otter to the beaver, " I never expect to see 
you again, my dear old friend." " Never mind, my 
dear fellow," said the beaver, " don't be too much 
distressed, we'll soon meet at the hatter's shop." 

This day a new flag was to be hoisted, down on 
Battery, and I was invited to attend. The artil- 
lery, under command of General Morton, paraded; 
and he invited many of his friends to be present: 
among the rest, the mayor, Gideon Lee, was there, 
and addressed the people. Among other things, 



52 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

he told them that that flag-staff was placed where 
the old one stood when the British evacuated New 
York; that they left the flag flying, and greased 
the pole, so that it could not he dim up ; but at 
Isist a sailor got up and tore it down, and hoisted 
the American flag in its place; and when he came 
down, the people filled his hat with money. 

General Morton is a revolutioner, and an ofiicer 
in the society of old soldiers called the " Cincin- 
nati Society," and wears its badge on his breast. 
He gave an entertainment to his friends on this 
occasion; for you must know that nobody thinks 
any thing well done in this place, without eating 
and drinking over it. 

This Battery a'n't a place, as its name looks like, 
for keeping and shooting off cannon. It might 
have been so, long ago; but it is a beautiful mea- 
dow of a place, all measured oflT, with nice walks 
of gravel between the grass plats, full of big shade- 
trees, and filled with people and a great many chil- 
dren, that come there to get the fresh air that comes 
off the water of the bay. This is a beautiful place; 
and you can see Long Island, and Staten Island, 
and many others from it. Here is likewise Castle 
Garden, and the bridge that Van Buren wanted to 
drownd the president off of, when him and Major 
Jack most fell in. The fact is, the plan was well 



OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 53 

enough, but General Jackson did not know of it. 
It was concluded, you see, that the president should 
make all his big secretaries and Colonel Reeside 
go before, and him come after 5 and then slam 
should go the bridge, with the old fellow on it. 
But he went foremost, and when it fell, they didn't 
catch any but Governor Cass, secretary of warj 
and he only lost his hat and wig, which they say 
the porpusses carried off and give to the sea-sar- 
pent, so that he might be on their side in the next 
oyster war. 

After all this, I went that same day to see my 
young friend Walden, and enjoyed myself with 
some friends till evening. 

When I got back to the hotel, I found the bill 
for the Bowery theatre 5 and it stated I was to be 
there. Now I knew I had never given the ma- 
nagers any authority to use my name, and I deter- 
mined not to go. After some time, I was sent for, 
and refused; and then the head manager came him- 
self. I told him I did not come for a show; I did 
not come for the citizens of New York to look at; 
I come to look at them. However, my friends 
said it would be a great disappointment, and might 
harm the managers; and so 1 went, and was friendly 
received. I remained a short time, and returned. 
So ended the first day of May, 1834; and I should 
E 2 



54 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

like to see anybody who saw more sights in once 
waking up. In fact, when I got to bed and begun 
to think them over, I found it would take me to 
daylight ; so I just broke off, and went to sleep. 

Next morning. Colonel Mapes told me he was 
requested to invite me over to Jersey City, to see 
some shooting with a rifle. In the mean time, I 
had been very kindly invited by Captain Comstock 
to go that day, at half-past three o'clock, with him 
to Boston. I concluded to go, as I might never 
have another opportunity, and it took only eighteen 
hours to go there. 

I went with the colonel to see little Thawburn's 
seed store : and a great place it is, for he has got 
all kind of things there ; and for fear his bird-seed 
should not be fresh, he keeps a few hundred birds 
to eat it up in short order : and to prove that his 
flower-seed is prime, he keeps thousands of little 
pots growing, and mostly gits five times as much 
for the proof as he does for the seed. He is a little, 
old, weezened-up man, talks broad Scotch, and is 
as active as a tarrier dog. 

I now started to Jersey City, where I found a 
great many gentlemen shooting rifles, at the dis- 
tance of one hundred yards, with a rest. One gen- 
tleman gave me his gun, and asked me to shoot. 
I raised up, oflf-hand, and cut within about two 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 55 

inches of the centre. I told him my distance was 
forty yards, off-hand. He loaded his gun, and we 
walked down to within forty yards, when I fired, 
and was deep in the paper. I shot a second time, 
and did the same. Colonel Mapes then put up a 
quarter of a dollar in the middle of a black spot, 
and asked me to shoot at it. I told him he had 
better mark the size of it, and put his money in 
his pocket. He said, " Fire away." I did so, and 
made slight-of-hand work with his quarter. 

It was now time to return, and prepare for my 
trip to Boston. 

At three o'clock I left the hotel, and went over 
to where the steamboat lay. When I went on 
board, the captain showed me into a splendid state- 
room, which I was to occupy for the voyage. So, 
when I had made my toilet (as great folks say), 
that is, combed my hair and taken a glass of bran- 
dy and water, I went on deck. There I saw almost 
as many people as were when I landed ; and they 
kept gathering until the whole ground was cover- 
ed ; and when we started, they cheered me for 
some time ; and all I could do was to stand and 
bow to them. This brought me into new trouble ; 
for the passengers found I was on board, and came 
round me, so that I missed seeing the city until we 
got past it 



56 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Soon, however, we came to the place called 
Hell's Gate ; so called, I suppose, because the wa- 
ter boils, and foams, and bounces about as if it was 
in a pot. I don't think, however, that this is a 
good name for it, because we are told in the good 
book that hell's gate is a mighty slick place, and 
easy to get into. Here I first saw a larg& square- 
sailed British merchant-ship, under full sail. She 
was coming in through this channel ; and I was 
glad to see that, for when we were voting for an 
appropriation for a fort to defend this place, I heard 
it said that no foreign ship ever attempted coming 
in that way. But these are the kind of arguments 
used most generally by those who oppose internal 
improvements, harbours, &c. &c. : they fancy 
things, and speak them for truth. 

We went on very pleasantly till night ; and the 
captain told me, if I would rise at daylight, we 
would be out of sight of land. So I went to bed, 
and rose as soon as I could see. I walked out on 
deck, and sure enough, there was no land to be 
seen. We were coming near Point Juda, a place 
where, the captain informed me, people on board 
was very often sea-sick. So I set myself down for 
a case ; but was disappointed : it was quite calm, 
and a clear fine morning ; and when the sun rose, 
it come up like a ball of fire out of the water, and 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 57 

looked, for all the world, as if it had been made 
for the first time. We went round Point Juda, 
and kept in sight of land on our left hand. There 
was very little timber to be seen ; the whole coun- 
try appeared to be laid off in fields, divided by 
stone fences. These were a great curiosity to me; 
and I could not help thinking that their cattle 
must be well schooled here ; for one of my cows 
would pitch over a dozen such fences, witliout 
flirting her tail. 

We went by the great fort at the Naraganset 
bay, and landed at Newport for a short time. 
From thence we took our way again to Provi- 
dence. There I met a large number of the citi- 
zens. They cheered me on my arrival, and wanted 
me to stay and partake of a dinner with them : I 
declined, and took my seat in the fast stage. The 
driver was ordered to go ahead ; and sure enough, 
he did. It was forty miles to Boston, and we run 
it down in four hours. 

What mighty hard land it is on this road, and 
seems as if the whole face of the earth had been 
covered over with stones, as thick as Kentuck land 
titles : but they have got them strung up into 
fences, as many as they can, by picking of them 
off ; but they won't stay picked ; for every time 
they plow, a new crop comes up. 



58 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

It was somewhere away along here that the pil- 
grims landed at Plymouth, and begun to people 
this part of the world : and a hard time they must 
have had of it in this barren country : and it seems 
odd that they should come all the way across the 
sea, and not look out for good land. However, I 
suppose it was all right, or God would have given 
them better pilots. If they had had fine land, 
they would not have ventured so much on the 
ocean, and would have had less necessity to work 
hard, and bring up their children to industry, and 
give them such cute teaching as makes them know 
how to make ducks and drakes of us out yonder, 
when they come among us. 

You would be as much struck as I was with the 
handsome houses and nice, f^rms ; but when I 
came to find all out, I didn't wonder so much. 
This was Captain A., and that B.'s house; and they 
made money on sea, and spent it on land ; that's 
the truth ; for Adam himself could not have made 
it out of the land. So I found out that most of 
them owned a little plantation on shore, and the 
run of the sea to work on besides. 

One of the passengers, who came from beyond 
Boston, while we were talking over these things, 
asked me if I knew Captain Silsbee. I told him 
no. " I guess you do," says he, " he's our senator 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 5g 

in Congress ; but to home, we old folks call him 
captain." I told him, certainly, I did, but never 
knew him by that title. "Well, we know that 
none on 'em boxed a compass longer nor better : 
and he made a power of money j and during the 
last war planked up more gold and silver to lend 
the government than Benton ever counted." 

But I must quit philosophy, and tell you where 
I stopped in Boston — and that was just where any 
one that has plenty of cash, and plenty of good- 
will for pleasure, would like — in a clean street, 
with a tavern on one side, and the theatre on the 
the other, and both called Tremont. Mr. Boyden 
did not know me, nor me him : but when I 4old 
my name, where they put it on the bar-book, he 
treated me like an old friend, and continued to do 
so all the time I was there. He gave me a good 
room and nice bed ; and did not, like many land- 
lords, let a stranger take care of himself, but at- 
tended to me the kindest in the world. I had 
seen a great many fine taverns ; but take this out 
and out, and Tremont-house is a smart chance 
ahead. It is lately built, and has every new ar- 
rangement ; and for a house with a couple of hun- 
dred people about it, is the quietest I ever was in. 
His head man of the gap, in the bar, has eyes all 
round him ; and Will Scarlet, as he is called by a 



60 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

friend of mine; has the sound of every bell in the 
house by heart. 

When I arrived, I knew no one , but in a short 
time I made many acquaintances, and, indeed, was 
very kindly treated by every person I met. There 
is a great deal of friendly feeling with the eastern 
people ; and folks need not go out o£ Boston to 
find rale hospitality. 

Next morning I was invited by Mr. Harding to 
visit his gallery of paintings, where he had a great 
many specimens of the fine arts; and finally he 
asked me to sit for him until he could get my 
likeness, which I did, during my stay, and he has 
it now, hung up among the rest of the fine arts. 
From there I went to Fanuell Hall, where Gene- 
ral Davis showed me all the accoutrements of war 
for several companies of infantry and riflemen, 
that was deposited in it. These are in snug rooms 
on each side of the second story; and in the mid- 
dle is the parade-room, where, summer and winter, 
the companies meet to drill. This is doing things 
in true style, that is all for use, and no show 
about it. So, instead of hearing a great fuss with 
volunteers, and drilling, and all that, wheeling and 
marching, handle catridge, eyes right — you see a 
squad of fine soldiers coming out of this same 
place, and squared up as if they were the rale breed. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. Qi 

General Davis informed me this was the house 
that was called the " cradle of liberty." I reckon 
old king George thought they were thundering 
fine children that was rocked in it, and a good 
many of them ; and that no wonder his red-coats 
were licked, when the children came out with 
soldier clothes on, and muskets in their hands. 
God grant that the liberty -tree bough on which 
this cradle rocks may never break. 

From here I went to the market, which is a 
small circumstance ahead of any thing I ever saw, 
and just where it should be. Now, in Philadel- 
phia, it looks like a long feeding-trough, stuck up 
in the middle of the city. And how d'ye think 
it was done? Why, they put a man of head 
in, as mayor, who laid all his plans, counted the 
cost, cyphered out the profits, and so forth, and 
then made one pitch right " ahead ;" and before 
the ninnies and scarey folks had half done telling 
their long stories about the dreadful expense, 
mayor Quincey's hammers were keeping time on 
the big granite stones, and the beautiful pillars 
were rising up as if he had just ordered them. 
In this market-house every thing looks like so 
many different shops or stores, and you are quite 
in-doors, instead of sellers and buyers both being 
exposed to wet, heat, and cold. The market ap- 



Q2 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

peared to be abundantly supplied, but, as I thought, 
rather dear. 

After returning home, I was invited over to 
Roxborough, where they make the Indian-rubber 
clothing, shoes, &c. This is done by dissolving 
the rubber, and putting it on silk or other cloth, 
which entirely turns the rain, and still is pliable, 
and not heavy. The proprietor made me a pre- 
sent of a hunting coat, which I have tried, and 
would risk my powder under it for forty days and 
nights. It was a great curiosity to see the young 
ladies cutting out the clothes, and sticking them 
together without sewing them. I went also through 
the shoe factory, where they make shoes in the 
same way, without stitching them. I could not 
help thinking of the Philadelphia girls — thought 
they ought to have them, to keep their feet dry. 

We often wonder how things are made so cheap 
among the yankees. Come here, and you will see 
women doing men's work, and happy and cheerful 
as the day is long : and why not ? Is it not much 
better for themselves and families, instead of sit- 
ting up all day busy about nothing ? It a'n't hard 
work, neither, and looked as queer to me as it 
would to one of my countrywomen to see a man 
milking the cows, as they do here. 

After I had seen all that was to be seen here, I 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. g3 

was taken to Colonel Perkins' carpet factory. 
There I saw the widest web I ever saw, and they 
were glossing and stamping it in handsome style. 
I was quite friendly received by the colonel. He 
is said to be a very rich man ; is quite old, but 
firm and healthy in his appearance ; and uses his 
riches in the best possible way — by keeping a 
great many people busy. And he is not one of 
those foolish people, neither, that strive all their 
days to see how rich they can die : for he gives 
with his hands open. I saw one house in Boston 
which he gave to keep the blind in, and was told 
it was worth fifty thousand dollars. What a com- 
fort the old gentleman must have when he looks 
at his great possessions, and is calculating, not how 
much he can hoard up, but how much he can give 
away. God never made such men to be envied, 
or I could begrudge him a few of his blessings 
from the poor and the destitute. 

At the invitation of the owners of the Indian- 
rubber factory, I met a number of the citizens of 
Roxborough, and passed a short time with them 
very pleasantly. 

When I returned to Tremont, I received an in- 
vitation from the young Whigs, to sup with them 
at eight o'clock. I accepted their invitation, and 
then went over to the Navy Yard, at Charlestown. 



64 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

I saw many fine ships, and among them was the 
splendid old Constitution. She was lying in dry 
dock, and had been new timbered in grand style. 
The likeness of Andrew Jackson was placed on 
her for a figure-head. I was asked if it was a good 
likeness. I said I had never seen him misrepre- 
sented ; but that they had fixed him just where he 
had fixed himself, that was — before the Constitu- 
tion. 

We then went up to the old battle-ground on 
Bunker's hill, where they are erecting a monument 
to those who fell in that daybreak battle of our 
rising glory. I felt as if I wanted to call them up, 
and ask them to tell me how to help to protect the 
liberty they bought for us with their blood ; but as 
I could not do so, I resolved, on that holy ground, 
as I had done elsewhere, to go for my country, 
always and everywhere. 

When I came back from Bunker's hill, I received 
about half a dozen invitations from distinguished 
citizens of Boston, to dine or sup with them ; so 
that it was impossible to attend to all of them, un- 
less I had the digestion of a cassawary. I must 
here state that the citizens generally of Boston are 
uncommon kind and civil ; and if they understand 
the art of making money, they know how to spend 
it. I was entertained like a prince, and could have 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 65 

lived there, I suspect, on the same terms for much 
longer. They appear to me to live generally in 
New England more snugly, and have more kind 
feelings to one another, and live in more peace and 
harmony, than any people I ever was among. And 
another good thing — they don't forget one another 
when they are among strangers : old New England 
binds them hard together ; and this gives them, as 
it ought to do, strength, and confidence, and influ- 
ence : and with us in the South, yankee cunning 
is assuming the true name — yankee knowledge of 
business, and perseverance in whatever they under- 
take. 

During the afternoon, many gentlemen came to 
see me, and we spent our time pleasantly until the 
time came for me to attend upon the young Whigs, 
A coach and four fine horses was sent for me. This 
I considered as too much honour ; but as I take all 
things as they come, and every thing for the best, 
I stepped into it, and off they whirled with the 
backwoods hunter. Which way they drove, I did 
not know, nor did I care. I knew they would 
not eat supper till I got there ; and that they would 
not serve me as Lafayette was served at a certain 
place where he was expected to land and dine. 
The steamboat wefrt wrong, and he did not arrive; 
so they eat their dinners, and took out the frolic* 
f2 



t66 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

About sundown the boat came up : the orator of the 
day was called for ; he was as blind as a pup ; but 
the moment the old general touched the ground, 
he put at him with abundance of welcomes and 
compliments about his heroism, until he got up 
-into the pathetics; when he said, " Glorious Lafay- 
ette, the blood you have shed, and the treasures 
you expended in defence of the liberties of this 
country, call for our gratitude. I want words to 
convey my ideas ; in fact (striking his hand on his 
belly instead of his heart), I'm too full to proceed." 
The old gentleman seized his hand, gave it a hearty 
'shake, and so the oration ended. 

We came to the appointed place, where I was 
taken in, and introduced to about one hundred 
young gentlemen, true chips of the old block, 
ready to be rocked in the old cradle, whether for 
fight or frolic, war or electioneering. They gave 
me a hearty welcome, and made me feel all as one 
of themselves. So down we sat to an elegant sup- 
per, with the best of wines, and the Champaigne 
foaming up as if you were supping fog out of 
speaking-trumpets. 

After the cloth was removed, and several toasts 
drunk, they toasted me very warmly. I rose, and 
addressed them as follows : 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 67 

" Gentlemen, 

" By the entire friendship of the citizens of Bos- 
ton, as well as the particular friendship with which 
you have received me this evening, I have been 
brought to reflect on times that have gone by, and 
review a prejudice that has grown up with me, as 
well as thousands of my western and southern 
friends. We have always been taught to look 
upon the people of New England as a selfish, cun- 
ning set of fellows, that was fed on fox ears and 
thistle tops ; that cut their wisdom-teeth as soon 
as they were born ; that made money by their 
wits, and held on to it by natur ; that called cheat- 
ery mother-wit ; that hung on to political power 
because they had numbers ; that raised up manu- 
factures to keep down the South and West; and, in 
fact, had so much of the devil in all their machine- 
ry, that they would neither lead nor drive, unless 
the load was going into their own cribs. But I 
assure you, gentlemen, I begin to think different 
of you, and I think I see a good many good rea- 
sons for so doing. 

" I don't mean that because I eat your bread and 
drink your liquor, that I feel so. No ; that don't 
make me see clearer than I did. It is your habits, 
and manners, and customs; your industry; your 
proud, independent spirits ; your hanging on to the 



68 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

eternal principles of right and wrong ; your libe- 
rality in prosperity, and your patience when you 
are ground down by legislation, which, instead of 
crushing you, whets your invention to strike a 
path without a blaize on a tree to guide you ; and 
above all, your never-dying, deathless grip to our 
glorious constitution. These are the things that 
make me think that you are a mighty good peo- 
ple. 

(Here I had to stop a while.) 

^' Gentlemen, I believe I have spoke the truth, 
and not flattery; I a'n't used to oily words; I am 
used to speak what I think, of men, and to men: 
T am, perhaps, more of a come-by-chance than any 
of you ever saw; I have made my way to the 
place I now fill, without wealth, and against edu- 
cation ; I was raised from obscurity, and placed in 
the high councils of the nation, by the kindness 
and liberality of the good people of my district — 
a people whom I will never be unfaithful to, here 
or elsewhere ; I love them, and they have honoured 
me ; and according as God has given me judgment, 
I'll use it for them, come of me what may. 

" These people once passed sentence upon me 
of a two years' stay-at-home, for exercising that 
which I contend belongs to every freeman in this 
nation : that was, for differing in opinion with the 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 69 

chief magistrate of this nation. I was well ac- 
quainted with him. He was but a man ; and, if I 
was not before, my constituents had made a man 
of me. I had marched and counter-marched with 
him : I had stood by him in the wars, and fought 
under his flag at the polls : I helped to heap the 
measure of glory that has crushed and smashed 
every thing that has come in contact with it : I 
helped to give him the name of " Hero,'^ which, 
like the lightning from heaven, has scorched and 
blasted every thing that stood in its way — a name 
which, like the prairie fire, you have to burn 
against, or you are gone — a name which ought 
to be the first in war, and the last in peace — a 
name, which, like * Jack-o'-the-lantern,' blinds 
your eyes while you follow it through mud and 
mire. 

" Gentlemen, I never opposed Andrew Jackson 
for the sake of popularity. I knew it was a hard 
row to hoe ; but I stood up to the rack, consider- 
ing it a duty I owed to the country that governed 
me. I had reviewed the course of other presi- 
dents, and came to the conclusion that he did not 
of right possess any more power than those that 
had gone before him. When he transcended that 
power, I put down my foot. I knew his popu- 
larity; that he had come inio place with the largest 



70 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

majority of any one that had gone before him, who 
had opposition : but still, I did not consider this as 
giving him the right to do as he pleased, and con- 
strue our constitution to meet his own views. 

" We had lived the happiest people under the 
sun for fifty years, governed by the constitution 
and laws, on well-established constructions: and 
when I saw the government administered on new 
principles, I objected, and was politically sacri- 
ticed : I persisted in my sins, having a clear con- 
science, that before God and my country, I had 
done my duty. 

" My constituents began to look at both sides ; 
and finally, at the end of two years, approving of 
my course, they sent me back to Congress — a cir- 
cumstance which was truly gratifying to me. 

" Gentlemen, I opposed Andrew Jackson in his 
famous Indian bill, where five hundred thousand 
dollars were voted for expenses, no part of which " 
has yet been accounted for, as I have seen. I 
thought it extravagant as well as impolitic. I 
thought the rights reserved to the Indians were 
about to be frittered away; and events prove that 
T thought correct. 

" I had considered a treaty as the sovereign law 
of the land ; but now saw it considered as a matter 
of expedience, or not, as it pleased the powers that 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 71 

be. Georgia bid defiance to the treaty-making 
power, and set at nought the Intercourse Act of 
1802 ; she trampled it under foot ; she nullified it : 
and for this she received the smiles and approbation 
of Andrew Jackson. And this was what induced 
South Carolina to nullify the tariff. She had a 
right to expect that the president was favourable 
to the principle : but he took up the rod of correc- 
tion, and shook it over South Carolina, and said at 
the same time to Georgia, ^ You may nullify, but 
South Carolina shall not.' 

" This was like his consistency in many other 
matters. When he was a senator in Congress, he 
was a friend to internal improvements, and voted 
for them. Every tiling then that could cement 
the states together, by giving them access the one 
to the other, was right. When he got into power, 
some of his friends had hard work to dodge, and 
follow, and shout. I called off my dogs, and quit 
the hunt. Yes, gentlemen, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 
and Tennessee, and other states, voted for him, as 
a supporter of internal improvements. 

" Was he not a tariff man ? Who dare deny it! 
When did we first hear of his opposition ? Cer- 
tainly not in his expression that he was in favour 
of a judicious tariff. That was supposed to be a 
clincher, even in New England, until after power 



72 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

lifted him above the opposition of the supporters 
of a tariff. 

" He was for putting down the monster ' Party/ 
and being the president of the people. Well, in 
one sense this he tried to do : he put down every 
one he could who was opposed to him, either by 
reward or punishment ; and could all have come 
into his notions, and bowed the knee to his image, 
I suppose it might have done very well, so far as 
he was concerned. Whether it would have been a 
fair reading of his famous letter to Mr. Munroe, 
is rather questionable. 

" He was to reform the government. Now if 
reformation consists in turning out and putting 
in, he did it with a vengeance. 

" He was, last of all, to retrench the expendi- 
tures. Well, in time, I have no doubt, this must 
be done ; but it will not consist in the abolishing 
useless expenditures of former administrations. 
No, gentlemen ; the spoils belonged to the victor ; 
and it would never do to lessen the teats when the 
litter was doubled. The treasury trough had to 
be extended, and the pap thickened : kin were to 
be provided for ; and if all things keep on as they 
are, his own extravagances will have to be re- 
trenched, or you will get your tariff up again as 
high as you please. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 73 

" I recollect a boy once, who was told to turn 
the pigs out of the corn-field. Well, he made a 
great noise, hallowing and calling the dogs — and 
came back. By-and-by his master said, ' Jim, you 
rascal! you didn't turn out the pigs.' — ^ Sir,' said 
he, ' I called the dogs, and set them a-barking.' 

" So it was with that big Retrenchment Report, 
in 1828. Major Hamilton got Chilton's place as 
chairman — and called the dogs. Ingham worked 
honestly, like a beaver ; Wickliff was as keen as a 
cut worm : all of them worked hard ; and they did 
really, I suppose, convince themselves that they 
had found out a great deal of iniquity; or, what 
was more desirable, convinced the people that An- 
drew Jackson and his boys were the only fellows 
to mend shoes for nothing, and find their own can- 
dles. Everett and Sargeant, who made the mino- 
rity report, were scouted at. What has come of 
all this ? Nothing — worse than nothing. Jackson 
used these very men like dogs : they knew too 
much, and must be got rid of, or they would stop 
his profligacy too. They were greased and swal- 
lowed ; and he gave them up to the torments of an 
anti-Jackson conscience. 

" Yes, gentlemen, as long as you think with him, 
very well ; but if v>^i — clear out ; make way for 
some fellow who has saved his wind ; and because 
G 



74 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

he has just begun to huzzah, has more wind to 
spare. General Jackson has turned out more men, 
for opinion's sake, than all other presidents put 
together, five times over : and the broom sweeps 
so low, that it reaches the humblest officer who 
happens to have a mean neighbour to retail any 
little story which he may pick up. 

" I voted for Andrew Jackson because I believed 
he possessed certain principles, and not because his 
name was Andrew Jackson, or the Hero, or Old 
Hickory. And when he left those principles 
which induced me to support him, I considered 
myself justified in opposing him. This thing of 
man-worship I am a stranger to ; I don't like it ; 
it taints every action of life ; it is like a skunk 
getting into a house — long after he has cleared out, 
you smell him in every room and closet, from the 
cellar to the garret 

" I know nothing, by experience, of party dis- 
cipline. I would rather be a raccoon dog, and be- 
long to a negro in the forest, than to belong to any 
party, farther than to do justice to all, and to pro- 
mote the interests of my country. The time will 
and must come, when honesty will receive its re- 
ward, and when the people of this nation will be 
brought to a sense of their duty, and will pause, 
and reflect how much it cost us to redeem ourselves 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 75 

from the government of one man. It cost the lives 
and fortunes of thousands of the best patriots that 
ever lived. Yes, gentlemen, hundreds of them fell 
in sight of your own city. 

" I this day walked over the great battle-ground 
of Bunker's hill, and thought whether it was pos- 
sible that it was moistened with the sacred blood 
of our heroes in vain, and that we should forget 
what they fought for. 

" I hope to see our once happy country restored 
to its former peace and happiness, and once more 
redeemed from tyranny and despotism, which, I 
fear, we are on the very brink of. We see the 
whole country in commotion : and for what ? 
Because, gentlemen, the true friends of liberty 
see the laws and constitution blotted out from the 
heads and hearts of the people's leaders : and 
their requests for relief are treated with scorn and 
contempt. They meet the same fate that they did 
before king George and his parliament. It has 
been decided by a majority of Congress, that An- 
drew Jackson shall be the Government, and that 
his will shall be the law of the land. He takes the 
responsibility, and vetos any bill that does not meet 
his approbation. He takes the responsibility, and 
seizes the treasury, and removes it from where 



76 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

the laws had placed it; and now, holding purse 
and sword, has bid defiance to Congress and to the 
nation. 

" Gentlemen, if it is for opposing those high- 
handed measures that you compliment me, I say 
I have done so, and will do so, now and for ever. 
I will be no man's man, and no party's man, other 
than to be the people's faithful representative : and 
I am delighted to see the noble spirit of liberty 
retained so boldly here, where the first spark was 
kindled ; and I hope to see it shine and spread over 
our whole country. 

" Gentlemen, I have detained you much longer 
than I intended : allow me to conclude by thanking 
you for your attention and kindness to the stran- 
ger from the far West." 

Early next morning I got up, and my health 
being much improved, I felt just like I was in 
peace with myself and all the world. After break- 
fast I took a long walk through the city, and passed 
through the Mall. This is a beautiful green, of 
something like forty acres, I should judge, and 
looks refreshing in the midst of a city. From the 
top of the State-house I had a fine view of the city; 
and was quite amused to see the representation of 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 77 

a large codfish hung up in the House of Assemhly, 
or General Court, as they call it — to remind them, 
either that they depended a good deal on it for 
food, or made money by the fisheries. This is 
quite natural to me, for at home I have on one end 
of my house the antlers of a noble buck, and the 
heavy paws of a bear. 

I did not like the statue of General Washington 
in the state-house. They have a Roman gown on 
him, and he was an American : this a'n't right. 
They did the thing better at Richmond, in Vir- 
ginia, where they have him in the old blue and 
buff. He belonged to this country — heart, soul, 
and body: and I don't want any other to have any 
part of him — not even his clothes. 

I return the officers in the state-house my thanks 
for their civility. I can't remember all their 
names, and therefore I won't name any of them. 

When I returned to Tremont house, a gentle- 
man invited me to walk with him to the old state- 
house. When we reached that, I saw a great 
€rowd. General Davis conducted me into the 
house, and we went up-stairs, where there was a 
platform. I drew off my hat, and bowed to the 
people ; they immediately cheered me, and called 
for a speech. I spoke as follows : 
g2 



78 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

" Gentlemen of Boston, 

" I had not the least idea of addressing you in 
any thing like a public speech, and I simply mean 
to return my gratitude for the kind reception I 
have received in Boston ; and not only in New- 
England, but through the United States, where I 
have travelled. 

" Gentlemen, this much I expected to do — to 
see, rather than to be seen : that was my object ; 
and I come to your country for a different purpose, 
gentlemen, than to set myself up to address the 
people. I am electioneering for nobody in the 
world, gentlemen. I come to your country to get 
a knowledge of things, which I could get in no 
other way but by seeing with my own eyes, and 
hearing with my own ears — information I can't 
get, and nobody else, from book knowledge. I 
come, fellow citizens, to get a knowledge of the 
manufacturing interest of New England. I was 
over-persuaded to come by a gentleman who had 
been to Lowell and seen the manufactories of your 
state — by General Thomas, of Louisiana. He per- 
suaded me to come and see. 

" When I w^as first chose to Congress, I was op_ 
posed to the protecting system. They told me it 
would help the rich, and hurt the poor ; and tliat 
we in the West was to be taxed by it for the bene- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 79 

fit of New England. I supposed it was so ; but 
when I come to hear it argued in the Congress of 
the nation, I begun to have a different opinion of 
it. I saw I was opposing the best interest of the 
country; especially for the industrious poor man. 
I told my people who sent me to Congress, that I 
should oppose it no longer : that without it, we 
should be obliged to pay a tax to the British go- 
vernment, and support them, instead of our own 
labour. And I am satisfied of it the more since I 
have visited New England. Only let the southern 
gentlemen come here and examine the manufacto- 
ries, and see how it is, and it would make more 
peace than all the legislation in Congress can do. 
It would give different ideas to them who have 
been deluded, and spoke in strong terms of dis- 
solving the Union. I never thought much of that, 
gentlemen ; but the time has come when one man 
has seized the sword of the nation in one hand, 
and the purse of the country in the other, and bids 
defiance to the senate and the constitution. 

" A crisis has come that extends through our 
universe — throughout the North American conti- 
nent. I never feared, gentlemen, that South Caro- 
lina would break the Union : but what do we now 
see ? Six months ago this hull country w^as the 
most prosperous in the world. Look around every 
where j and business was active, industry thriving, 



80 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

and the highest manufacturer and the lowest farmer 
received his profits. And now how is it ? All 
this prosperity — the whole destroyed. And what 
for ? Just to gratify the ambition of one super- 
annuated old man. I have known this old man 
for a long time. I was the first man that fired a 
gun in his service ; and I helped him to gain all 
his glory. He was an honest man then, and a 
brave soldier ; and I liked him, though I always 
had doubts of his judgment. But I was taught to 
be prejudiced against the last administration ; and 
I thought he would call around him an able cabi- 
net, and make a good president for the country. 
But we no sooner got him in, than the first course 
he took was to give walking papers to every man 
in office who had dared to oppose the greatest and 
best. But whoever took oif his hat and huzzaed 
for Andrew Jackson, he was fit for any office in 
the country. Well, gentlemen, he tuk the hull 
government after he got into power ; and I couldn't 
stand it any longer. I found I was wrong, and I 
faced right about : and when they told me I should 
be politically buried if I left Jackson, I told them 
I had rather be politically buried than hypocriti- 
cally immortalized — and so we parted. 

" But, gentlemen, I am no man's partizan ; I 
don't mean to wear no man's collar ; for I would 
as lief belong to a nigger, and be a raccoon dog, 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. gj 

as the partizan of any man. The old man's 
vanity has led him on ; and he has been grati- 
fied by thinking he has killed the United States 
Bank. But he wan't satisfied with that : he 
then levelled his gun, and fired at the senate — 
one of the most intelligent and patriotic bodies 
of men, fellow citizens, there ever was in this 
country or any other. I said, when he cocked 
his gun and begun his war upon the senate, he 
would find he had fired into the wrong flock. The 
senate, gentlemen, will stand by the constitution, 
and will save the liberties of the country. 

Gentlemen of Boston, as I partly said before, I 
come here as a private citizen, to see you, and not 
to show myself. I had no idea of attracting atten- 
tion ; but I feel it my duty to thank you, with my 
gratitude to you, and with gratitude to all who 
have given a plain man like me so kind reception. 
I come from a great way ofi" ; but I shall never re- 
pent having been persuaded to come here and get a 
knowledge of your ways, which I can carry home 
with me. We only want to do away prejudice, 
and give the people information. I have done my 
best : I have sent fourteen thousand documents to 
Tennessee ; and my colleagues complain that it 
will raise a dust there ; and I tell them, that is just 
what I want. I hope, gentlemen, you will excuse 



32 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

my plain, unvarnished ways, which may seem 
strange to you here. I never had but six months' 
schooling in all my life ; and I confess, I consider 
myself but a poor tyke to be here addressing the 
most intelligent people in the world : but I think 
it the duty of every representative of the people, 
when he is called upon, to give his opinions ; and 
I have tried to give you a little touch of mine." 

Here now comes a poser. I was invited to dine 
out ; but if I can mind the gentleman's name I 
wish I may be shot. He lived near Tremont ; and 
I hope, if he has curiosity enough to read this here 
book, that he will write me a letter, so that in my 
second edition I may give his name, as large as 
life : and I beg him to recollect that it an't every 
one that signs a letter that makes himself known. 
Let him write it plain — none of your hiryglifficks 
— or I won't put him in. 

Well, so it was ; we had a mighty good dinner 
to eat, plenty of good wine to drink, and many 
very clever gentlemen to talk to ; which, you 
know, all put together, is a dose that's not hard to 
take. And then, again, I was not called on for 
toasts, nor roasted for a speech, but just had to do 
my part of the talking, like any other Christian. 

Some would say that they were mortified that 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. g3 

they forgot this gentleman's name. I a'n't ; Pm 
sorry — but the truth is, I saw so many folks, and 
so many new things, that it's no wonder I should 
not mind every thing. He was a clever fellow, 
and I know he will forgive me. 

When I went home, there I met a young man 
that was stone blind. " Well," says you, " that's 
no new thing." Stop, if you please : that puts me 
in mind of an old parson and a scolding woman 
that belonged to his church. She told him, in one 
of her tantrums, that she could preach as well as 
he could, and he might select the text. " Well," 
said the old man, " I'll give you one, and you can 
study over it — ' It is better to dwell on the house- 
top,than in a wide house with a brawling woman.' " 
— " You good-for-nothing, impudent, old — what 
shall I say ? do you go for to call me a brawling 
woman ?" — " Dear mistress," said the good old 
man, " you'll have to study a while longer, for you 
come to the application of the text before you dis- 
cuss the doctrine." 

Now it was not that I met a blind boy in Tre- 
mont house that was any curiosity: but it was his 
errand. He inquired of the bar-keeper for me, as 
I was standing by him, and said he was sent by the 
teacher of the blind, to invite me to visit the insti- 
tution, and that he would show me the way ! ! 



g4 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

I was told by the gentlemen present, that he 
could go all over Boston. A gentleman accompa- 
nied me, and we went on till we came to a fine 
house, where the institution was kept. We went, 
and were introduced to the teacher. He asked 
me if I wished to hear some of them read. I said 
I did : and he ordered a little girl, perhaps ten or 
twelve years old, to get her book, asked her to 
find a certain chapter in the Old Testament, and 
read it. She took up the book, and felt with her 
fingers until she found it. He then told her to 
read : and she did so, with a clear, distinct voice. 
This was truly astonishing : but on examining 
their books, I found that the letters were stamped 
on the under side of the paper, so as to raise them 
above the surface of the upper side ; and such was 
the keenness of their touch, that by passing the end 
of the finger over the word, it served them for 
sight, and they pronounced the word. There was 
a little boy learning to cipher in the same way. 
The teacher put several questions to him aloud ; 
and, putting his fingers together and working with 
them for a short time, he answered all the ques- 
tions correctly. 

That kind of education astonished me more than 
any thing I ever saw. There were a great many 
of them. Some were learning to play on the piano- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 85 

forte ; and many of them were busy making pretty 
little baskets, such as are carried about by ladies. 

They asked me if I would like to hear them 
sing : and telling them it would please me very 
much, a number of them came up, and some had 
musical instruments : one had a large thing which 
I never saw before, nor did I ask the name : one 
had a clarionet, and one had a flute. They played 
and sung together beautifully: and, indeed, I never 
saw happier people in my life. I remained some 
time with them, going over the establishment. 
This is the house that I mentioned before was 
given by Colonel Perkins to the blind. There is 
not such a grand house owned by any person in 
Washington. What a satisfaction it must be to 
this old gentleman, and others who have helped 
these unfortunates, to see them surrounded with 
so many comforts. 

When I returned, there were some gentlemen 
that invited me to go to Cambridge, where the big 
college or university is ; where they keep ready- 
made titles or nicknames to give people. I would 
not go, for I did not know but they might stick 
an LL.D. on me before they let me go ; and I had 
no idea of changing " Member of the House of 
Representatives of the United States," for what 
stands for " lazy lounging dunce," which I am 



g5 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

sure my constituents would have translated my 
new title to be, knowing that I had never taken 
any degree, and did not own to any, except a small 
degree of good sense not to pass for what I was 
not — I would not go it. There had been one doc- 
tor made from Tennessee already, and I had no 
wish to put on the cap and bells. I recollected the 
story of a would-be-great man who put on his 
sign, after his name, in large capitals, D. Q. M. G., 
which stood for Deputy Quarter Master General ; 
but which one of his neighbours, to the great diver- 
sion of all the rest, and to his mortification, trans- 
lated into " damn'd quick made gentleman.'^ No, 
indeed, not me — any thing you please but Granny 
Crockett ; I leave that for others ; I'll throw that 
in to make chuck full the " measure of their coun- 
try's glory." 

I told them I did not go to this branding-school; 
I did not want to be tarred with the same stick ; 
one digniterry was enough from Tennessee ; that 
as far as my learning went, I would stand over it, 
and spell a strive or two with any of them, from 
a-b-ab to crucifix, which was where I left off at 
school. 

This day I dined out again ; but I'm most tired 
talking of dinners, especially after I have eaten 
them. I went to the theatre that night. The act- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 87 

ing was pretty considerable, considering that one 
actress, who, it was very plain, was either a mar- 
ried woman, or " had ought to be," as they say 
there, was playing the character of a young lady; 
and one fellow tried to sing that was not half up to 
a Mississippi boat-horn. 

We got a little dry or so, and wanted a horn , 
but this was a temperance house, and there was 
nothing to treat a friend to that was worth shaking 
a stick at : so, says I, " when there was a famine 
in the land of Canaan, there was plenty of corn in 
Egypt : let us go over to the Tremont ; Boy den 
keeps stuff that runs friends together, and makes 
them forget which is which." Over we went, and 
soon forgot all about the theatre. 

I had promised next morning to go to Lowell 
with Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Harding, and others ; but 
when I woke up, it was pouring down rain, so that 
kept me in the house all day. 

I was not idle, for I had a heap of talk with the 
folks in the house. One gentleman asked me to 
come and see him ; but he gave me so many direc- 
tions about getting to where he lived, that I asked 
him to write it down, and told him if ever he came 
to my part of the country, I hoped he would call 
and see me. " Well," said he, " how will I find 
where you live?" — "Why, sir, run down the 



88 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUK. 

Mississippi till you come to the Obion river, run 
a small streak up that, jump ashore anywhere, and 
inquire for me." 

Says I to one of them, " Do you believe in the 
sea-sarpint ?'^ — " If I don't, there's no snakes. I 
believe it to be as much true as there is lie in our 
deacon when he says his red face a'n't made by 
drinking * New England.' " — " Do you consider 
him dangerous, or is he peaceable ?" — " Well, now, 
to keep to the truth, I never saw him ; but Capting 
Hodijah Folger said as how he considered the crit- 
ter as a sort o' so, and a sort o' not." — " Had he a 
long tail ?" — " Tail, did you say ? You'd a-died 
to hear Didge tell about that thar verming. Didge 
said he was like skying a copper — head or tail — 
but you had to guess which. Ses Didge to me, 
* Don't you mind,' ses he, ' that are angel what 
stood with one leg on the sea, and t'other on the 
dry land ?' — ^ I guess I do.' — ^ Well,' ses he to me, 
'that are sarpint's skin was long enough to a-queued 
his hair.' " 

I was asked to sup with a Mr. Richards, whom 
I had seen at Washington. He had a house full of 
ladies and gentlemen, collected to see me : so I 
was on my manners, and I hope they were all as 
much gratified as I was. We had a fine supper, 
plenty of conversation, and some fun. I don't 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. gg 

think the northern ladies talk as much publicly as 
they do in the south and west. In private conver- 
sation they are ready enough. 

When I got back, I saw my old cock again. 
" Well/^ says I, " what do you think of nullifica- 
tion up here ?" — " Why, they say, some of them, 
that it was got and bred by the tariff. Squire 
Williams, my neighbour, said he didn't think so : 
it was a kind of come-by-chance, that was too 
wicked to know its own kin ; and he thought it 
was a very ugly thing. ^Well,' says I to him, 
'squire, setting a case as how the congress of 
Jackson-men should pass a law taxing of all the 
looms and spindles, and letting cottons and wool- 
lens come in from foreign parts, free of duty — 
what should we do ?' — ' Why, ask 'em to repeal 
it.' — * Suppose they would not do it ; and when 
we were growing poorer and poorer, the tax- 
gatherer should come to sell you out, stock and 
fluke.' — *Why, I'd dispute his authority despe- 
rately; and if that would not do, I'd fight him, by 
the blue blaizes.' — ' And so would I: but a'n't that 
nullifying, or something mighty like it?' — * Why,' 
ses he, ' the toe that's tramped on feels most ; and 
a man that don't swear, had better try a stumpy 
field with a young yoke of cattle.' — ' Well,' ses I, 

h2 



90 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

* them there people down there fought desperate 
in the old war. They whipped Captain Gornwal- 
lis, and scared Sir Harry Clinton out and out ; and 
I reckon then no more nor now they don't like 
nobody to wrong them out of their rights.' But 
I'm glad it's all over : and I'll tell you what I 
think ; you don't work hard enough in the south, 
and take good care of your grounds, and cattle, and 
so on ; at least, I hearn Josiah Norton say so, when 
he come home from down to south, where he had 
been pedling a spell. Si ses to me, ses he, ' Please 
goodness! but that's a poor country down yander ; 
it makes the tears come into the kildear's eyes 
when they fly over the old fields. Dod drot me, 
if you can even get a drink of cider! ! They a'n't 
got no apples but little runts of things, about as 
big as your thumb, and so sour, that when a pig 
sticks his tooth into 'em, he lays back his jaw, and 
hollers, you might hear him a mile : but it's * eat, 
pig, or die' — for it's all he's got. And then again, 
they're great for huntin of foxes ; and if you were 
to see their hounds! lean, lank, labber-sided pups, 
that are so poor they have to prop up agin a post- 
and-rail fence, 'fore they can raise a bark at my 
tin-cart. It's the poorest place was ever made.' " 
— So, said I, " Stranger, you had better come down 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 91 

and judge for yourself, both as to principles and 
habits : you would be as much pleased, I am sure, 
as I have been in coming north.^^ 

Next morning I rose early, and started for Low- 
ell in a fine carriage, with three gentlemen who 
had agreed to accompany me. I had heard so 
much of this place that I longed to see it ; not be- 
cause I had heard of the " mile of gals ;" no, I left 
that for the gallantry of the president, who is ad- 
mitted, on that score, to be abler than myself : but 
I wanted to see the power of machinery, wielded 
by the keenest calculations of human skill ; I 
wanted to see how it was that these northerners 
could buy our cotton, and carry it home, manufac- 
ture it, bring it back, and sell it for half nothing ; 
and, in the mean time, be well to live, and make 
money besides. 

We stopped at the large stone house at the head 
of the falls of the Merrimac river, and having 
taken a little refreshment, went down among the 
factories. The dinner bells were ringing, and the 
folks pouring out of the houses like bees out of a 
gum. I looked at them as they passed, all well 
dressed, lively, and genteel in their appearance ; 
indeed, the girls looked as if they were coming 
from a quilting frolic. We took a turn round, and 



92 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

after dining on a fine salmon, again returned, and 
entered the factories. 

The out-door appearance was fully sustained by 
the whole of the persons employed in the different 
rooms. I went in among the young girls, and 
talked with many of them. Not one expressed 
herself as tired of her employment, or oppressed 
with work : all talked well, and looked healthy. 
Some of them were very handsome ; and I could 
not help observing that they kept the prettiest 
inside, and put the homely ones on the outside 
rows. 

I could not help reflecting on the difference of 
condition between these females, thus employed, 
and those of other populous countries, where tlie 
female character is degraded to abject slavery. 
Here were thousands, useful to others, and enjoy- 
ing all the blessings of freedom, with the prospect 
before them of future comfort and respectability: 
and however we, who only hear of them, may call 
their houses workshops and prisons, I assure my 
neighbours there is every enjoyment of life real- 
ized by these persons, and there can be but few 
who are not happy. It cannot be otherwise : re- 
spectability depends upon being neighbour-like : 
here everybody works, and therefore no one is de- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 93 

graded by it; on the contrary, those who don't 
work are not estimated. 

There are more than five thousand females em 
ployed in Lowell ; and when you come to see the 
amount of labour performed by them, in superin- 
tending the difierent machinery, you will be as- 
tonished. 

Twelve years ago, the place where Lowell now 
rises in all its pride was a sheep-pasture. It took 
its name from Francis C. Lowell, the projector of 
its manufactories, and was incorporated in 1826 — 
then a mere village. The fall, obtained by a canal 
from the Merrimac river, is thirty -two feet, afford- 
ing tv/o levels for mills, of thirteen and seventeen 
feet ; and the whole water of the river can be used. 

There are about fourteen thousand inhabitants. 
It contains nine meeting-houses ; appropriates 
seven thousand five hundred dollars for free 
schools ; provides instruction for twelve hundred 
scholars, daily; and about three thousand annually 
partake of its benefits. It communicates with 
Boston by the Middlesex canal (the first ever 
made in the United States); and in a short time 
the rail-road to Boston will be completed, afford- 
ing every facility of intercourse to the seaboard. 

This place has grown by, and must depend on, 
its manufactures. Its location renders it impor- 



94 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR, 

tant, not only to the owners, hut to the nation. 
Its consumption not only employs the thousands 
of its own population, but many thousands far 
away from them. It is calculated not only to give 
individual happiness and prosperity, but to add to 
our national wealth and independence ; and in- 
stead of depending on foreign countries, to have 
our own material worked up in our own country. 
Some of the girls attended three looms ; and 
they make from one dollar seventy-five cents to 
three dollars per week, after paying their board. 
These looms weave fifty-five yards per day; so 
that one person makes one hundred and sixty-five 
yards per day. Every thing moves on like clock- 
work, in all the variety of employm.ents ; and the 
whole manufacture appears to be of tJie very best 
The owner of one of the mills, Mr. Lawrence, 
presented me with a suit of broadcloth, made out 
of wool bought from Mark Cockral, of Mississippi, 
who sold them about four thousand pounds; and it 
was as good cloth as the best I ever bought for best 
imported. 

The calico made here is beautiful, and of every 
variety of figure and colour. To attempt to give 
a description of the manner in which it is stamped 
and coloured is far beyond my abilities. One 
thing I must state, that after the web is wove, and 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 95 

■I 

before they go further, it is actually passed over 
a red-hot cylinder, to scorch off the furze. The 
number of different operations is truly astonishing; 
and if one of my countrywomen had the whole of 
the persons in her train that helped to make her 
gown, she would be like a captain on a field-muster: 
and yet, when you come to look at the cost, it 
would take a trunk full of them to find these same 
people in living for one day. 

I never witnessed such a combination of indus- 
try, and perhaps never will again. I saw the whole 
process, from the time they put in the raw mate- 
rial, until it came out completely finished. In fact, 
it almost came up to the old story of a fellow walk- 
ing into a patent machine with a bundle of wool 
under his arm, and coming out at the other end 
with a new coat on. 

Nothing can be more agreeable than the atten- 
tion that is paid by every one connected with these 
establishments. Nothing appears to be kept se- 
cret ; every process is shown, and with great 
cheerfulness. I regret that more of our southern 
and western men do not go there, as it would help 
much to do away with their prejudices against 
these manufactories. At my particular request, 
the annexed statement was made out, which, I have 
no doubt, will astonish many who read this book 



96 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 




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93 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

REMARKS. 

Yards of Cloth made per annum 39,170,040 

Pounds of Cotton consumed 12,256,400 

Assuming half to be Upland, and half New Orleans 

and Alabama, the consumption in bales, is 34,800 

A pound of Cotton aventging Sj^ yds. 

100 pounds Cotton will produce 89 pounds Cloth. 

Average wages of Females, clear of board §1.90 per week. 

" " of Males, clear of board 80 per day. 

Medium produce of a loom on No. 14, yarn, 38 to 49 yds. per day. 
No. 30, 25 to 30 « 

Average per Spindle Ij^q- yd. per day. 

Persons employed by the Companies are paid at 
the close of each month. 

The average amount of wages paid per month, $89,000 

A very considerable portion of the wages is de- 
posited in the Savings Bank. 

Consumption of Starch per annum 310,000 lbs. 

" of Flour for do. in Mills, Print- 
works, and Bleachery, per annum 3,800 bbls. 

Consumption of Charcoal, per annum 500,000 bushels. 

As regards the health of persons employed, great numbers have 
been interrogated ; and the result shows that six of the females 
out of ten enjoy better health than before being employed in the 
mills. Of males, one-half derive the same advantage. 

As regards their moral condition and character, they are not 
inferior to any portion of the community. 

To the before-named principal establishments may be added the 
extensive Powder Mills of O. M. Whipple, Esq., the Lowell 
Bleachery, Flannel Mills, Card and Whip Factory, Planing Ma- 
chine, Reed Machine, Grist and Saw Mills ; together employing 
about 300 hands, and a capital of $300,000. Also, in the im- 
mediate vicinity. Glass-works, and a Furnace, supplying every 
description of casting. 

On the 1st of June next, the Middlesex Company will manu- 
facture 500 yards of sattinet per day, in addition to the above ; 



COL. CHOGKETT'S TOUR. 99 

and the consumption of wool will then be 2000 pounds per day 
in their establishment. The Locks and Canals Machine Shop, in- 
cluded among the 22 mills, can furnish machinery complete for 
a mill of 5000 spindles in four months : and lumber and mate- 
rials are always at command, with which to build or rebuild a mill 
in that time, if required. 



I met the young gentlemen of Lowell, by their 
particular request, at supper. About one hundred 
sat down. Every thing was in grand order, and 
went off well. They toasted me, and I enlight- 
ened them by a speech as good as I could make : 
and, indeed, I considered them a good sett of fel- 
lows, and as well worth speaking to as any ones I 
had met with. The old saying, *^ them that don't 
work should not eat," don't apply to them, for 
they are the rale workies, and know how to act 
genteel, too ; for, I assure you, I was not more 
kindly, and hospitably, and liberally treated any 
where than just by these same people. 

After supper I went to my lodgings for the 
night. Next morning I took another range round 
the town, and returned to Boston. 

Part of this evening I spent at Lieutenant-go- 
vernor Armstrong's, where I met a number of 
ladies and gentlemen. Part of it went off very 
pleasantly with my worthy landlord in his private 
rooms ; and I do him the justice to say, that while 
he supplies his visiters with every thing that is 



] 00 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

nice, he has also picked out for himself as pretty 
a little bird as ever fluttered, and is in good keep- 
ing with every thing about the establishment. 

Having been invited to the theatre, I went over 
and sat a short time to be looked at. I was very 
genteel and quiet, and so I suppose I disappointed 
some of them, who expected to see a half horse 
half alligator sort of a fellow. 

This was my last night in Boston ; and 1 am 
sure, if I never see the place again, I never can 
forget the kind and friendly manner in which I 
was treated by them. It appeared to me that every 
body was anxious to serve me, and make my time 
agreeable. And as a proof that comes home — when 
I called for my bill next morning, I was told there 
was no charge to be paid by me, and that he was 
very much delighted that I had made his house my 
home. I forgot to mention that they treated me 
so in Lowell ; but it is true. This was, to me, at 
all events, proof enough of yankee liberality; and 
more than they generally get credit for. In fact, 
from the time I entered New England, I was treat- 
ed with the greatest friendship ; and, I hope, never 
shall forget it : and I wish all who read this book, 
and who never were there, would take a trip among 
them. If they don't learn how to make money, 
they will know how to use it : and if they don't 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. IQl 

learn industry, they will see how comfortable every 
body can be that turns their hands to some em- 
ployment. 

May 9th. — The stage called for me at seven 
o'clock, and I took my departure from Boston, and 
went to Providence in Rhode Island. Here I was 
in^dted to dine at two of the hotels, but declined 
both. In fact, I was tired out, and wanted a day 
or two to get rested ; and my face being turned 
towards Washington and my business, I thought I 
had better go ahead. 

We had, from Providence, what they call a 
pretty considerable of a rUriy and landed safely in 
New York, that city of eternal din and confusion. 

I spent that evening with some ladies and gen- 
tlemen, and rode out with , in his 

carriage, faster than I ever was driven by horse- 
power, for twenty-five miles. 

Next morning I took my leave of the city of 
New York, and arrived safe in Philadelphia. 

Having promised Mr. Hoy of Camden to call 
and see him on my return, and having fixed the 
time, I went over, accompanied by several gentle- 
men, to the Jersey shore, where there were a great 
many people waiting to receive me. They gave 
me the hand of friendship, and appeared pleased 
that I had come over to see them. We proceeded 
i2 



102 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

to Mr. Hoy's, and then I took a walk around 
through Camden. On returning to Mr. Hoy's, I 
took some refreshment, and was called on for a 
toast, but begged off, as I expected to be called on 
for one at dinner. 

Some time after this, we were asked in to din- 
ner, and I heard some one say he had lost his 
pocket-book. And in a few minutes a second cry 
was raised, that another man had lost his pocket- 
book. I then felt for mine ; but I felt in vain — 
it was gone, with one hundred and sixty -eight dol- 
lars in it. I told them there was another gentle- 
man that had his deposits removed, and it must 
be a Jackson man who did it, as it was all on their 
own plan. But as I was among my friends, I 
knew I was not just a broke man, and therefore 1 
shut pan on the subject, and fell to eating my din- 
ner. We had every thing that was good to eat, 
and abundance of fine wine, so we soon forgot the 
ills of life. After the table was cleared and some 
toasts drunk, they toasted me in a very handsome 
manner, complimenting me highly for the course 
I had taken as a public servant. I returned my 
gratitude in a speech of about half an hour ; but 
which, as is said in certain advertisements, would 
be too tedious to insert 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 103 

After spending a pleasant afternoon, I returned 
to Philadelphia in the horse-boat ; the very one, I 
suppose, that the fellow told of, when crossing 
over. He said they had put in a couple of colts, 
and being very wild, they pitched ahead, ran ofl* 
with the boat down the river, and never stopped 
till they came up jam against the breakwater. 

Next morning I was invited to go on to Balti- 
more in the People's Line of steamboats. I ac- 
cepted the proposal, and started in the Ohio steam- 
boat. What is a little remarkable is this, that the 
Rail-road Line had always heretofore beat the 
People's Line until that day, when we passed them, 
and came into port some time before them. Whe- 
ther this was because they had me on board, or 
not, I do not pretend to say. Some said, if I could 
tow a steamboat up the Mississippi, it was no 
wonder that I could help one along on the Chesa- 
peak bay. 

Many of my friends met me on the wharf at 
Baltimore, and escorted me to Barnum's, where 
there was a great crowd of people. They called 
on me for a speech. I made a great many 
apologies, but none seemed to fit the right 
place, and I was compelled once more to play the 
oj-ator^ 



104 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

" Gentlemen of Baltimore, 

"You have called on me for a speech : I am truly 
sorry that my opportunities through life haA^e been 
such, that it is embarrassing for me to attempt to 
speak to such an enlightened community, especially 
in such times as the present. 

" I am of opinion that it would take an old and 
experienced politician to keep pace with the go- 
vernment. It has undergone so many changes 
recently, that a man hardly knows one day what 
fix the government will be in the next. I am from 
the far West, and have made but little pretensions 
of understanding the movements of the wheels of 
government j but one thing I know, agreeable to 
the decisions of Congress, we have but little need 
of a Congress at all. We may as well di&miss our- 
selves, and go home ; shut up shop, bar out the 
Schoolmaster, and save the expense of a Congress. 
We have decided, by a considerable majority, that 
Andrew Jackson shall have all power. He is the 
supreme power ; he is legislative, executive, and 
judicial : he boldly asserts that any law that passes 
Congress, which does not meet his approbation, 
and has not two-thirds of Congress to support it, 
he will put his veto on it. 

" If one man is to rule, I see no use of us big 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 105 

men meeting at Washington. We had better save 
the people's money, and stay at home. 

" We have had presidents before Andrew Jack- 
son ; and we have had some of the very men that 
framed the constitution of our country; and strange 
to tell, the people have come to the conclusion that 
none of these worthies, not even those that helped 
to make the sacred article, understood its meaning. 
When Andrew Jackson came in, he was the man 
that was authorized to construe it as he understood 
it ; to mould it, and fashion it, and make it a dodger 
or a johnny-cake, and bake one side or both ; and 
yet, the people cry, ' Amen — it is right — Jackson 
says so.' And the truth is, many people seem to 
think that no man ever was competent to adminis- 
ter the government but Andrew Jackson. He can 
make any change he pleases — they pitch up their 
caps, and cry, 'All is right; hurrah for Jackson!' 

" Now, gentlemen, my opinion is, that the old 
man, if left to himself, would have done right: and 
I will give you one fact, as I have heard it. When 
General Jackson arrived in Washington, as presi- 
dent elect, he mentioned to some of his friends 
that on such a day he was going to pay his respects 
to President Adams. Well, this was right, because 
he was paying respect to the office, if he had none 
for the man. But they had in Washington a dirty 



106 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

' pack of what was called a ' Central Committee' — 
vindictive, intermeddling fellows, who, when they 
heard of it, swore he should not do so : and they 
persuaded him not to do that which he felt him- 
self bound in honour, as a man, to do. Neither 
he nor his friends will pretend to deny this. 

" This makes me say that he got round him a 
sett of advisers who cared nothing for the honour 
and dignity of the government, but had their own 
low, interested views to accomplish, and cared not 
how they accomplished them : and what is true, 
some of them, after using him for their own pur- 
poses, think less of him now than I do. But God 
is great, and in the long run, will give a fellow 
rope enough to hang himself ; and if we don't see 
some of them so high that they can't touch ground, 
my name an't Crockett. I hope to see the peo- 
ple's eyes with the dust blown out of them once 
more, before the peace and happiness of this coun- 
try is eternally destroyed. 

" I tell you, gentlemen, there are some things 
at Washington that want probing to the bottom : 
and the office-holding gentry may whip up their 
Globe to sputter, and fume, and blackguard, as 
much as he can ; but they will meet with their 
match in an indignant people, when they come to 
find out their deviltry. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 107 

'^ It's no use to blink matters. The skunk has 
been abroad, and he must have a blunt nose that 
can't wind him. 

" We are a great nation, and have lived for more 
than fifty years the most happy people under the 
sun ; but, I fear, without a change in men and 
measures, our happy days will soon end. 

" I do contend that our president has done an 
act that no king nor tyrant would have dared to 
have done ; and still we see him surrounded by a 
sett of worshippers, ready to sustain him in every 
thing he does. I thank my God that I have had 
fortitude enough to stand up and support my coun- 
try, instead of becoming the flatterer, and wor- 
shipper, and lick-spittle of any man or sett of men. 
If this arbitrary and lawless course should involve 
our country in war and bloodshed, I have cleared 
my skirts in doing all I could to prevent it I may 
be beaten, and struck from the rolls of public ser- 
vants : be it so ; I will rejoice in my fate ; for I 
would rather retire into private life with clean 
hands and a good conscience, than live and breathe 
in an atmosphere of sycophants and time-servers. 

" Look at the dreary, gloomy prospect of your 
commercial concerns. I have been as far as Bos- 
ton, and have seen the distresses brought on by the 
president's experiment. It ought to make every 



108 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

sober-minded man reflect, and ask himself what 
we are to look for next. 

" We see our commerce crippled, our manufac- 
turing interests deeply injured, and our currency 
destroyed. Yes, gentlemen, they may impose on 
the people with Jackson money, and all that stuff; 
but the time must come when we will all feel the 
inconvenience of interfering and intermeddling 
with what they know nothing about. They have 
stopped our currency, and they can no more mend 
it than the boy could mend his father's watch after 
he has broken it. It runs faster, and whizes louder 
for a little while, but the end of a short chain brings 
it up. I am no prophet, but, in my opinion, we 
shall soon have to give boot on our money, when 
we travel from one state to another. Taney money 
won't do ; it an't the grit When Jackson took the 
responsibility, he did it at the instigation of a hun- 
dred little fly-blown rag shops, that wanted it di- 
vided among them. And now, when he has scat- 
tered it among them, they are all fighting for them- 
selves. But a day of payment is coming ; and let 
me warn all honest men who have become person- 
ally responsible for government deposits, that they 
don't deal with a common creditor, but one that by 
law has all power, and, by construction, can exer- 
cise it as it pleases : and if the money an't forth- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. IQO 

coming, out comes a Randolph writ for any sum 
they please, and whap goes your property and 
liberty. And what is all this for? Why, the 
Bank has offended Andrew Jackson, by daring to 
defend herself against him and his'n, who first 
made war on the Bank. 

" Is it possible that the blood and treasure of 
our forefathers can have been shed in vain ? Can 
it be, that they resisted the crook of king George's 
finger, and that we, like pups, will crouch under 
king Andrew's whip ? I hope not ; and that the 
redeeming spirit of the people will show, that, 
although the harlot has been among them, their 
locks are still unshorn ; and, feeling their own 
power, will exercise it like freemen. I know, if 
left to themselves, they will do right ; and if they 
shall find, as I hope they shortly will, that they 
have been misled, that they will come back to the 
true construction of the laws and constitution of 
our country. Interested politicians have kept hid 
from them the truth ; but it cannot continue long 
so ; and the day is fast approaching when truth 
and justice will prevail over intrigue and party 
discipline. 

" The present time presents a new scene to us 
in our political history; but I cannot think that 
party is to triumph over jorinciple. The people 
K 



XIO ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

are not ready to surrender up their old and happy 
mode of government, to gratify the minions that 
surround the president. No, gentlemen ; merit 
will ere long receive its reward, in defiance of 
these brawling politicians — these robbers of public 
men and public morals. 

" Have we not seen, long enough, the best of 
our men compelled to surrender their stations to 
those that huzzaed loudest for Andrew Jackson ? 
Qualification is nothing ; honesty and integrity are 
nothing ; faithful services are nothing. ' Did he go 
for the greatest and best V — that's the question. 
* If so, put the golden chain about his neck, and 
give him the fatted calf to feast upon. Reward 
him for his allegiance and faithful services to the 
country in supporting me.' And all this, gentle- 
men, is done under the name of democracy. 

" If this is what you call democracy, or the re- 
publican principle, I am a stranger to it, and hope 
I ever may be. My notion was, that republicanism 
let every man in this nation vote for who he 
pleased, and permitted no man to censure another's 
motive in so doing. I have taken a small chance 
in the last war, in defence of our rights, and have 
no idea of surrendering them to enemies at home. 
I broke off from Jacksonism whenever I found I 
could not be a freeman. I could not stand the lash 



COL. CrvOCKETT'S TOUR. m 

of the whippers-in. * Go with the party, go with 
the party,' was the everlasting argument. I got 
disgusted, and knew that the less you handle rotten 
eggs, the better chance you have of coming off with 
clean hands : so I cut loose. I got scorched for it 
at first, but my noble constituents found out I was 
fighting for their good, and they sent me back to 
Congress, after having proscribed me, at the cry 
of the party, for two years. They told me to go 
back, and stick to my own notions, let who would 
say no : and I'll do so, fearlessly, desiring all to 
redound to my country's good. 

" Gentlemen, I have no doubt but that I owe 
you many apologies for my plain manner of ad- 
dressing you ; but I will make none, for I expect 
your great anxiety to hear me was matter of curi- 
osity, and I hope you are gratified. I thank you 
for your polite attention, and wish you all happi- 
ness and prosperity." 

As usual, when there is some speaking going on, 
there is a good deal of eating and drinking ; so I 
eat and drank generously, and retired. 

Several friends called on me, and requested me 
to visit Major James P. Heath, member of Con- 
gress from Baltimore. I did so, and staid a short 
time at his house, and then returned to uncle Davie's 



112 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Next morning I took the stage for Washington. 
When I arrived at the capitol, I found nothing 
new^ more than they had just got through the ap^ 
propriation bill, and was taking the vote to post- 
pone Mr. Boone's resolution, setting the day of 
adjournment. I went in while the clerk was call- 
ing the ayes and noes, and when he came to my 
name, and I answered, every one was astonished 
to find me at my post. " Did not I tell you," said 
I, '* that I would not vote on the appropriation bill, 
but when you came to any thing else, I was ^ Char-^ 
lie on the spot ?' " I walked about the house, saw 
my friends, and sat out the Congress. When the 
House adjourned, for good and all, I started for 
home, by the way of Philadelphia. 

Did you, my good reader, ever witness a break- 
ing up of Congress ? If not, you had better come 
and see for yourself. The first thing that is done 
is, to be sure that Sunday shall be one of the last 
days. That is because we get paid for Sunday; 
and then^ as they generally fix, at the end of long 
sessions, on Monday to break up, a good many can 
start on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, with 
two days' extra pay in hand, as they never calcu- 
late on much to be done on the last day of the ses- 
sion, except to send messages to the senate and 
president that they arc ready to adjourn, &c. &c. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 113 

We generally lounge or squabble the greater part of 
the session, and crowd into a few days of the last 
of the term three or four times the business done 
during as many preceding months. You may 
therefore guess at the deliberations of Congress, 
when you can't hear, for the soul of you, what's 
going on, nor no one knows what it is, but three 
or four, and when it's no use to try to know. Woe 
betide a bill that is opposed ! It is laid aside for 
further time, and that never comes. This is con- 
sidered, however, by some of the great men as good 
legislation ; to reject every claim, as if the Ameri- 
can people was a herd of scoundrels, and every 
petitioner a cheat, and therefore they are doing the 
country service to reject every thing. Most of 
these worthies are content to vote no, and will not 
trouble themselves to investigate. I don't know 
what they are made of, for to me nothing is more 
delightful than to vote for a claim which I think is 
justly due, and make them feel as if the govern- 
ment cared for them and their concerns, and would 
pay what was justly due. What do you think 
would a petitioner care about going to fight for his 
country who had been dinging at the doors of 
Congress, ever since the last war, for some claim 
or other justly due him, but driven from post to 

pillar, because he does not come within the spirit 
k2 



114 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

or letter of some general law, or because if you pay 
him, you must others like him. This an't the way 
with private people ; they must pay, or be called 
unjust, and be sued into the bargain. 

But indeed, from my observation, I should think 
that Congress is a bad place to decide claims any 
how; and I have seen enough to believe some other 
way might be got up to examine them better than 
by two hundred and forty jurors. 

Let Congress be the body to watch over the 
great concerns of the nation, and we could get our 
long sessions cut down to short ones, and honest 
claims be sooner decided, and better than hanging 
on like Amy Dardin for fifty years; and then after 
the seed, breed, and generation was most run out, 
get pay for a hor^e pressed during the revolution ; 
and indeed this case of Amy Dardin shows much 
of the course of proceeding : first it was barred by 
the statutes of limitation ; well, what do you know 
of these statutes ? Why, it's a convenient way to 
pay debts. It's the national honour and honesty 
coming out under an insolvent debtor's act, but not 
half so clean ; for the honest debtor only takes ad- 
vantage of acts or laws passed by others ; in this 
case the party passes his own act ; but they have 
got pretty shamed of that thing. Well, sometimes 
Amy was told it was an unlawful act of the United 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. US 

States' officer, and you must see him. This was a 
wild goose chase to hunt on. The officer was 
away from the north, and the horse was taken in 
Virginia ; so it rested for years. At long and last, 
Congress, all at once, like honest folks, said, that 
no matter how long ago, or whether the officer did 
right or not, the United States got the valuable 
services of the horse, and still owed for them ; and 
they paid the money like a whitehead; and even 
the boys in the streets were hurrawing for Con^ 
gress that had paid for old Amy's horse. The 
claimants owe much to their worthy and talented 
friend Claiborne. 

This is a long string, but it's all true. 

Well, just before they adjourn, each house sends 
a message to the other to inform them, that " hav- 
ing finished all the legislative business before them, 
they are ready to adjourn." Now this compliment 
would be all genteel enough, but there's too much 
lie in it for me. If they would say that the hour 
of adjourning is about to arrive, and they are off, 
and send their compliments to their wives and 
children, and wish them a good journey, and so on; 
1 could carry such a message myself ; but what's 
the fact? We have left nearly four hundred bills 
of our house unacted on, and which must lie over 
until next session. This is finishing indeed ! but 



X16 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

the worst of it is, that next session being a short 
one, and the third of March must come, you'll see 
how many of them will be hung up to dry in their 
own skin. Mind my words: nothing can save 
them, unless Major Downing should quit sodgerin 
and secretaryin for General Jackson, and help us 
to vote. 

After these two truth-telling messages are sent, 
some great, or would-be great man, gets up, and 
moves that a message be sent to the President, in- 
forming him, that unless he has some further com- 
munication to them, both houses are ready to ad- 
journ. This is a second reading of a resolution 
that is in substance not true ; but back comes an 
answer saying he has nothing more. This is, or is 
not true, as the case may be ; for lately our Presi- 
dent has kept some bills back, which he said after- 
wards he had not time to send back with his rea- 
sons for not signing them. This is what I call 
strangling a bill ; and if part of this coming and 
going was not a farce, why not say, stop till to- 
morrow, and Pll tell you why I can't sign the bill. 
All this I suppose is true legislation, but is cer- 
tainly slanting off considerable from man's truth. 

It's right odd to look round and see the differ- 
ence of faces on this occasion. Some quit, think- 
ing they have established a name in the nation, and 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. HJ 

look satisfied ; some quit, right glad to get home, 
and know they are coming back ; some are rest- 
less and fidgetty, with a journal under their arm to 
take home, to prove how punctual they were, and 
be ready to meet their antagonist for re-election ; 
and perhaps also nicely folded in their pocket a 
copy of his predecessor's pay and mileage, to show 
he has not charged too much, or perhaps to prove 
that a few miles too much have been charged by 
his predecessor, or some such small-beer concern ; 
others are soberly and sadly calculating how they 
can travel down from their heights of political dig- 
nity to the level of their constituents, and are cast- 
ing a "longing, lingering look behind,'^ at the 
green spot of elevation which they are never, never 
again to ascend. Few have got more honour than 
they expected ; many have got less : few have 
risen higher than was anticipated ; many, very 
many, have found that the regions are far too ele- 
vated for them to reach with their home-made glo- 
ry; some retire with the proud consciousness of 
having done their duty fearlessly; others fretting 
under the lash of the whippers-in, and supplicating 
place and privilege, because they have borne the 
scourge in silence : some determined to go their 
own road ; others, like the spaniel, snuffing the 
breeze, to catch the scent of his master's footstep. 



lis COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

What a pretty album it would make, if you 
could get each one to write a sentence or two about 
this subject ; but you could not get this done. 
Most folks don't like to write nothing, for you 
can't get over it, unless you would j^lead madness. 
In these days, that would not be hard to prove on 
many a man ; but I don't think that they will stay 
so. I suspect many of them will take new doctor 
stuff before this time next year, and come to their 
senses. I think them post office committees will 
do a power of good if they can stir up the old con- 
tracts and extras, and get hold of the parson's pub- 
lic, private, office-made, home-made, modifying, 
magnifying, wine-drinking, carriage-making me- 
morandum book; but he's rather slick for that. 
Answers from that quarter would be like the stut- 
tering boy's fox : — " Did you see a fox run past 
here, my boy ? " — " Si-si-sir ?" — " Did you see the 
fox ?"— " Was it a lil-lil re-ed thing ?"— ^' Yes, did 
you see it ?" — " Co-uld it ru-n very fast ?" — " Yes, 
like the devil ; which way did it go .^" — " St-t-t-op; 
had it a long t-t-t-ail?" — " Yes, yes, yes ; which 
way, heh?"— "Why, to t-t-t-ell you the truth, I 
didn't se-se-see nin-nin-nothin of it ! !" 

I sort to seem to think, however, that it won't 
be hard to catch a stage load of rats in and out of 
office, and that they'll look blue somewhere else 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. Hg 

than in the " Blue Book ;" and my notion is, that 
the " old committee of claims" won't let them slip 
the halter. I'll bet six koons to a bear-skin they 
are run down and earth'd before the middle of next 
frost ; but still I don't think both committees will 
find where the spent money is, no more than where 
the public treasury is. 

What a pretty kittle of fish we shall have to fry 
some of these days a-looking after uncle Sam's for- 
tune ; it's lent out to a parcel of prodigal rag-ba- 
bies, authorized by law to support their daddies 
and mammies, and down to the forty-second cousins? 
and when the old gentleman wants a few dollars, 
they'll laugh at him, and say, " Go and hunt them ; 
we can give you notes and houses, and lots and nig- 
gers and mortgages, but Hhe Bentons' are all 
gone ; the ' eagle's flight is out of sight ;' don't 
bother us ; we helped you to put down the United 
States' Bank ; and if we have spent your money, 
do you think we can work and lie too for nothing ? 
Ask the Globe, and Amos, and the man that the 
schoolmaster in the treasury keeps to cypher for 
him." 

There was one thing I wanted to get an insight 
into most monstrously, but I had not the rale ad- 
ministration " specks," and that was, what has be- 
come of tlie five hundred thousand dollars voted 



120 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

some time ago for removing Indians ; that would 
carry a heap ; but there's not many gone, and the 
money has give out : and the fact is, that the old 
fellow has driv off so many secretaries, that the 
whole shool of them put together can't hunt up 
the receipts, and so they say nothing about it. 

Another thing I tried hard, and that was, my 
land bill for my constituents ; but I could not reach 
it. My people don't like me to log-roll in their 
business, and vote away pre-emption rights to fel- 
lows in other states, that never kindle a fire on 
their lands: but I'll never give up till I get them 
their just rights, whether in or out of Congress. 
I'm agin any man, from General Jackson as far 
down as Colonel Polk, that's agin my people ; and 
I think they'll all come over yet, and then they'll 
be for making me governor, which is a little more 
than I want to be yet a while. 

I must tell you about what you know something 
of before this ; the senate could not pass Mr. Ste- 
venson through for England. The reason was 
what I wanted to state : he was a-going through 
right slick, till he came to his coat pocketts, and 
they were so full of papers wrote by Ritchie, and 
" the Major," and himself, that he stuck fast, and 
so he hung by the flaps. 

It's right hard to mind every thing that passes, 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 121 

and that people would like to hear ; and if, in 
writing this book, I had some one to talk to, and 
ask questions, I could make it as long as a session 
of a new Congress j and sometimes I would like to 
get a sight of some papers ; but they serve me like 
the Bank served the last committee ; they think 
Pm prying into things I have no right to, and slam 
goes the kivers, and away goes all hopes of a long 
story. 

I think the last thing I wrote about my own move- 
ments was, that I was going off to Philadelphia. 
Well, I started and got to Baltimore, where, on 
inquiry, I found all things working well ; and they 
told me that I might depend on it that Van Buren 
Jacksonism was boiled down so thick it would not 
spread, and they would not get it to stick on an- 
other man. " Good!" says I ; "go ahead! smoke 
him out of the town : any fellow who would write 
such instractions to our foreign ministers, abusing 
men better than himself, and making foreign na- 
tions calculate on our political divisions, deserves 
to be handled without mittens. You may forgive 
him, but I never will ; and I hope, before he dies, 
he'll get a taste of long division, without any re- 
mainder. There's something coming that you'll 
hear of by-and-by; white oak's as tough as hick- 
L 



122 t)OL. CROCKETT^S TOUR. 

ory, any day, and is the same colour inside and out; 
and that's more than the other is. 

"Colonel/' says one of my friends, "we saw 
your speech that you made in Boston ; and you 
may depend it had great power here among us." — 
" Never mind," says I, " Pm going to write out 
my tower, and you will see all : I'll put in every 
word I said, if I can mind it ; and when I can't, I'll 
do like members in the House — speak half a 
column, and write two — or get it done. I wish I 
could visit every place, and see the folks, and make 
them think a little. Here you have had a Van 
Buren convention ; that's enough ; I wish I could 
hold the next one in Pennsylvania somewhere ; it 
would cure them. But I think old George Wolf 
knows a thing or two ; and if he don't, I can tell 
him that they don't like him a bit better than they 
do senator McKean ; and they'll ride rough-shod 
over him, and leave him to pay the toll-gate into 
the bargain. They fooled him about the Bank, and 
they'll next pull the chair from under him, while 
they have him blindfolded." 

In this kind of conversation the evening passed 
off quite pleasant with my friend Wilkes and 
others. Early next morning I started for Phila- 
delphia, in the People's Line, Captain Turner, and 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. J 03 

had a fine time of it. I arrived in Philadelphia, 
and put up at the United States, where I felt a 
kind of being at home. 

Next morning I was informed that the rifle gun 
which was to be presented to me by the young 
men of Philadelphia, was finished, and would be 
delivered that evening ; and that a committee had 
been appointed to wait on me and conduct me to 
where I was to receive it. So, accordingly, in the 
evening the committee came, and I walked with 
them to a room nearly foment the old state-house: 
it was crowded full, and there was a table in the 
centre, with the gun, a tomahawk, and butcher- 
knife, both of fine razor metal, with all the accou- 
trements necessary to the gun — the most beautiful 
I ever saw, or anybody else ; and I am now happy 
to add, as good as they are handsome. My friend, 
John M. Sanderson, Esq., who had the whole 
management of getting her made, was present, and 
delivered the gun into my hands. Upon receiving 
her, I addressed the company as follows : 

" Gentlemen, 
*^I receive this rifle from the young men of 
Philadelphia as a testimony of friendship, which I 
hope never to live to forget. This is a favourite 



224 ^^L- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

article with me, and would have been my choice 
above all presents that could have been selected. 
I love a good gun, for it makes a man feel inde- 
pendent, and prepared either for war or peace. 

" This rifle does honour to the gentleman that 
made it. I must say, long as I have been accus- 
tomed to handle a gun, I have never seen any thing 
that would come near a comparison to her in 
beauty. I cannot think that ever such a rifle was 
made, either in this or any other country j and 
how, gentlemen, to express my gratitude to you 
for your splendid present, I am at a loss. This 
much, however, I will say, that myself and my 
sons will not forget you while we use this token 
of your kindness for our amusement. If it should 
become necessary to use her in defence of the 
liberty of our country, in my time, I will do as I 
have done before ; and if the struggle should come 
when I am buried in the dust, I will leave her in 
the hands of sons who will honour your present, in 
company with your sons, in standing for our coun- 
try's rights. 

"Accept my sincere thanks, therefore, gentle- 
men, for your valuable present — one which I will 
keep as a testimony of your friendship, so long as 
I am in existence." 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 125 

I then received the gun and accoutrements, and 
returned to the hotel, where I made an agreement 
with Mr. Sanderson and Colonel Pulaski, to go 
with them the next day to the Jersey shore, at 
Camden, and try my gun. 

Next morning we went out. I had been long 
out of practice, so that I could not give her a fair 
trial. I shot tolerable well, and was satisfied that 
when we became better acquainted, the fault would 
be mine if the varmints did not suffer. 

I was invited next day to go up and spend the 
day at the Fish House on the Schuylkill, where 
the fathers of our country, in ancient days, used 
to assemble and spend the day in taking their re- 
creation and refreshments. It has been a noted 
place ever since, and is as beautiful as you can 
imagine. It is called the twenty-fifth state. They 
have regular officers, and keep up the old customs 
with a great deal of formality. We amused our- 
selves shooting, and catching perch. We had a 
nice refreshment, and abundance of the best to 
drink. Every gentleman took a hand in cooking ; 
and the day was truly spent in harmony and peace. 

The next morning was the fourth of July, and I 
had received an invitation, while at Washington, to 
take dinner in the first district, at the Hermitage, 
with the Whigs, and had accepted the invitation. 
L 2 



126 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

At an early hour I was invited to the Musical 
Fund Hall, where an oration was to be delivered ; 
and went with the honourable Messrs. Webster, 
Poindexter, Mangum, Ewing, and Robbins, sena- 
tors, and Mr. Denny, of the House of Representa- 
tives. We were conducted up to a galery in the 
first story of an immense building, crowded below 
to overflowing with ladies and gentlemen. 

After the address of the orator, the audience was 
also addressed by all the senators, and I was then 
called on. "A speech from Colonel Crockett," 
was the cry all over the house. I was truly em- 
barrassed to succeed so many great men, and where 
I saw so many ladies ; but I found no excuse would 
do, and spoke as fpllows : 

" Ladies and Gentlemen, 

" I feel my inability to address you, after the 
whole political history of our country has been 
discussed by the ablest men in the nation. It ap- 
pears to me that it is not good sense in me to at- 
tempt it. 

" I presume it is your curiosity to hear the plain, 
uneducated backwoodsman in his home style. I 
will accommodate you for a very short time, al- 
though I have not the least idea that I can add any 
thing to what has been so ably said by those who 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1^7 

have already spoken. I did not calculate to be call- 
ed on, but I do believe our country requires every 
one to do his duty honestly, however homely. 

" You find your country undergoing a change 
of principles, and in fact, it is greatly to be feared, 
for the worse. You, gentlemen, have felt the 
efiects of the experiment that is making by our 
chief magistrate. He, I suppose, wishes to distin- 
guish himself from all other presidents, by esta- 
blishing something new; or, by breaking us all up, 
teach us the ^ old way of paying new debts.'' 

" Will the people of this country submit to this ? 
is the question to be tried. Seven years ago, when 
I came into Congress, Pennsylvania principles 
were all, as I thought, right. Her members sup- 
ported internal improvements by the general go- 
vernment, and were all in favour of the United 
States' Bank. What has produced the change is 
more than I can say, unless some of them think it 
to be their bounden duty to fall into the ranks of 
the New York troops, under the discipline of the 
Albany Regency. 

" The fact is. General Jackson holds but few of 
the principles he pretended to when he was before 
the people for the office he now fills : and perhaps 
a majority of your Congress-men think it right to 
follow him. It may be right, but I, for one, can- 



128 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUn. 

not agree with him in his change. And sure I am, 
that if then a member from the state of Pennsyl- 
vania had supported such principles and measures 
as are now popular in this state, the man that would 
have done it would have been laid away among 
the unfinished business, as I was when I refused 
my support to his new-fangled principles. I have 
been whipped, and cleared, and restored to my 
station again, with the frowns of all the men-wor- 
Bhippers in the district upon me ; but I care no- 
thing about them : I belong to no party, nor never 
will, more than to do justice to my country. I love 
my country, and have fought hard for the liberty 
to act and think for myself, and also to give the 
people the privilege to vote against me, if they 
do not like my course. I would as leave be a rac- 
coon dog as to be yelping along after a party, right 
or wrong. This is what I call a volunteer slave 
that will do it. I hope to see this abominable party 
faction put an end to ; if it is not, it will be as in 
all governments we have ever read of — they have 
been overthrown by party zeal. 

" If we have a government of laws, and a con- 
stitution, let us respect it ; and if we are to become 
a despotism, let the people know it, and let them 
not be gulled by false and delusive representa- 
tions. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 129 

" I consider we are returning to the old days 
of King George the Third as fast as possible ; we 
then had the government of one man, and agree- 
able to my understanding, we have arrived nearly 
to the same point again, in these glorious days of 
retrenchment and reform. 

" I could say a great deal more, but I am, by 
promise, to meet the citizens in the first district 
this day, and perhaps may be called on to address 
them ; so I must close by returning my thanks for 
your polite attention." 

I then returned to the hotel, where I was waited 
on in a short time by a committee, with a splendid 
carriage, and was conveyed to the Hermitage, 
where I met a large concourse of people ; and when 
it was made known that I had arrived, I was re- 
ceived with loud and repeated cheers, and peals of 
cannon. I was conveyed to a large and cool 
shade, and introduced to a Vast number of citizens, 
who all appeared glad to see me. I partook of cool 
drinks of various kinds, and amused myself among 
the people until near the dinner hour. We were 
then asked to walk out and take our seat on the 
stand, where the Declaration of Independence was 
read, and a most appropriate address was delivered 
by the orator of the day 



130 COI^- CROCKETT'S TOUE. 

I was then called upon by the crowd for a 
speech ; but dinner was ready, and we agreed to 
postpone further speaking until after dinner. 

The dinner, in elegance and variety, did honour 
to the person who prepared it. After the cloth 
was removed, and the regular toasts given, I was 
(Complimented with a toast. 

I rose and requested the company to do me the 
favour to repair to the stand, and I would endea- 
vour to address them from it, as the crowd was so 
great, it would be impossible for me to make them 
hear at the table ; and if I had to speak, I desired 
to gratify all. When we got out, I found a great 
jnany ladies surrounding the stand. I made my 
way to it among the crowd, who were loudly call- 
ing out for my speech, and addressed them as fol- 

" Fellow Citizens of Philadelphia, 
" I am at a loss for language suitably to express 
my thanks for the sentiments contained in the 
toast which you just drunk. They demand a re^- 
ply from me, and I sincerely regret my inability 
adequately to discharge my duty. The times, 
however, call for every one to speak out, and give 
his opmions of the true state of the country. Cir- 
jcumstances alters cases. I would have once thought 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I31 

it degrading to a gentleman to go into another's 
district and make a political speech ; but on the 
celebration of this day, in such times as these, it 
becomes every public man to let his sentiments be 
known ; to speak to the people, at the people, and 
for the people, and not for ourselves, and therefore 
I'll ' go ahead.' 

" You, gentlemen, have just heard read that glo- 
rious article, the Declaration of Independence. 
What caused that declaration to be made ? It was 
from such times and circumstances as the present. 
In 1776, King George brought oppression upon the 
American colonies to such an extent, that they 
could no longer bear it. The citizens of this coun- 
try laid their petitions at the foot of his majesty's 
throne, and they were treated with silent con- 
tempt. He went on with his oppressions until 
loyalty was exhausted, and the best patriots that 
ever lived assembled in yonder state-house, where 
they pledged to one another, and to the world, 
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour 
that we should be free. Free from what ? Why, 
free from despotism and from British tyranny, and 
ftee from the government of one man. Well, 
sirs, what was the consequence ? War ensued, and 
thousands of our noble ancestors fell before the 
British arms, fighting their death to obtain a go- 



132 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

vernment of constitution and laws. The horrors 
of war did not make them stop till they obtained 
their object. We gained it, and have lived more 
than fifty years the happiest people under the sun. 
Look back only a few months since, and you saw 
this country blessed with the best circulating me- 
dium in the world ; you saw our commercial men 
busily engaged in carrying our produce to the ends 
of the earth ; the seas were spotted with our ships, 
all making a reasonable profit ; your manufactories 
were engaged, busily employing every one that 
wanted to work, and they also were once more 
about to flourish and extend their benefits to the 
Avhole country. Where now is your circulating 
medium ? It is stamped with the curse of executive 
folly. Your ships are calling home to be chained 
and rot at your wharves, and your manufactories 
are paralyzed, and many of them breaking up. And 
what is all this for ? Just to gratify the ambition 
of one man, that he may reek his vengeance upon 
the United States Bank, because it refused to lend 
its aid in upholding his corrupt party. 

" I consider, gentlemen, that in 1834, the same 
page has opened in our political history that did in 
1776. We have seen petitions, signed by hun- 
dreds of thousands, laid before your Congress, 
praying for relief, and warning them of the danger. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I33 

What has become of them ? They were conveyed 
away to a committee selected by our hireling 
speaker, with his written promise in his pocket to 
pay him for his servility. He came there for the 
purpose of raising committees, all in favour of the 
views of the ^greatest and best,' and he filled ex- 
pectation. He has got his reward according to his 
works. He stuck by the pocket-flaps. 

" You are never again to hear from your peti- 
tions ; and still this is what they call the days of 
democracy. Good God deliver me from such de- 
mocracy. Sirs, I consider that Andrew Jackson 
has gone further than ever King George did ; he 
has even closed the door of the palace against the 
bearers of your petitions, and refused them en- 
trance into his majesty's presence ! And what is 
more degrading than all, is to see a perfect hire- 
ling, a slave to party, supporting kingly principles 
in sight of the house where that glorious article 
was penned. This looks to me entirely out of the 
question. Have the citizens of this patriotic city, 
yea, the place where the first s'entence of that paper 
was heard — have they forgotten the blood and 
treasure that our forefathers sacrificed to redeem 
them from the government of one man ? 

" I cannot, and will not, believe it possible, that 
the people of the first district of the great state of 
M 



X34 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Pennsylvania can be imposed on any longer by a 
slave to party, upholding and supporting the most 
tyrannical measures. Yes, gentlemen, one who 
will sell himself, and bow down to Andrew Jack- 
son for the sake of an office, and of whom I heard 
it said in the house, when thirty votes were given 
him for a certain office, ^ that reminds me of the 
thirty pieces of silver.' Will you permit your- 
selves longer to be imposed upon? Gentlemen, 
you may think I am meddling with the election 
of your representative, and this is true ; and if you 
knew that gentleman as well as I do, you would 
never blame me. However, as to that, I take the 
responsibility ; for I am determined to do my duty 
to my country, let the consequences be as they 
may. 

" I do believe the country is ignorant of its true 
situation. Andrew Jackson has this day every 
dollar of the treasury under his controul, and with 
a sett of minions or slaves around him to sustain 
him in an open violation of the laws and constitu- 
tion of the country. What is to enlighten the peo- 
ple ? Hireling presses all over the country, bought 
up by post-offices and post-office contracts, and 
extras, and other fat offices, are ready to hand out 
to the people such stuff as is favourable to their 
party only, and reject the truth. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 135 

" Look back to the days when Andrew Jackson 
was aspiring to the place which he now fills, and 
. you saw the whole continent convulsed with the 
hue and cry that Adams and Clay was indulging 
in a system of extravagance that would speedily 
bankrupt the nation. They were hurled from 
office without ceremony, and the reformers and 
retrenchment gentry rode into their seats ; and 
the dust they had kicked up was so great, the peo-^ 
pie's eyes were blinded. But, gentlemen, that dust 
has blown ojQf ; and what is our situation compared 
with the administration of Adams and Clay ? Dur- 
ing that time the Expenditures ranged from ten to 
thirteen millions of dollars ; and what is it now, 
under these reforming and retrenchment gentle- 
men ? It is from eighteen to twenty millions. 
Will you take this for retrenchment ? You may, 
I will not ; nor can I be made to believe that the 
people will think so, when they come to under^ 
stand it. No, gentlemen, it is like what the devil 
said when he was shearing the hog : ' great cry, 
and little wool.' 

"I was one that was deceived, among many 
others, and was made to believe that Messrs. Adams 
and Clay was two of the greatest scoundrels on the 
face of the earth. I joined the band, and raised 
tl)e war-v/hoop against them ; and finally we suq? 



136 ^^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

ceeded in putting them down — thus supposing we 
were serving the Lord and General Jackson. But 
I found, by personal acquaintance of those gentle- 
men, that they had been grossly misrepresented, 
and saw it was a political speculation— ^a fuss, 
kicked up just to promote a certain sett of men's 
own interest. 

" I came into Congress in 1827, as honestly the 
friend of Andrew Jackson as any man in the world; 
but when I found that his whole object was to serve 
party and reek his vengeance upon those who had 
voted against him, my bristles begun to get up : I 
inquired of myself if this was the true republican 
principle. When I saw honourable members creep- 
ing round the house with papers to recommend 
some man to office, and that his qualifications were 
overlooked, and his Jackson ism wrote in capitals ; 
when I saw them also, like jackalls in the night, 
prowling after those poor fellows in office who 
dared to think that we were wrong, and they w^ere 
right, and who done their duty to their country 
faithfully, I said to myself, ' God never made man 
upright to act so : I can't go it : there's no princi- 
ple in this thing." I stopped, and looked, and in- 
quired the straight road ; I found I was off the path, 
turned round, w^ent home, and took a fresh trace. 

" I had to pay for all this dearly. Every press 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1^7 

denounced me as bought over. No matter : my 
bear-hunting knees were too stiff to bend to power. 
They hit me uncommon hard at home ; but I bore 
it, and fought shy till I got them out of wind, and 
then brought them to a parley. 

^' You all know they turned me out of Congress 
and often, when in the woods, with two compa^- 
nions that will never give a fellow up in the try- 
ingest times — a just God and a clear conscience — 
I laid down my gun, called in the pups, and thought 
over every thing. One evening, late, while I was 
sitting so, my oldest of the pack put his paw on my 
knee, and seemed whining for me to go. ' Well,' 
said I to him, * honest old Tiger, you never cried 
on a false trail, neither will your master. You 
always hold, like death ; when you take, you grip ; 
so will I. You never forsook your master, though 
I have used you hard sometimes: so, by the help of 
God, I will not forsake my old constituents ; and if 
I can only succeed in making them know one half 
of what I have seen of men and things at Washing- 
ton, they'll go right.' I sprung to my feet, begun 
a new campaign, and here I am again, representing 
the same honest boys who go Jbr keep when the 
country's stakes are up. I had hard work ; but I 
stood up to the rack, fodder or no fodder. I told 
them I was fighting for my own liberty to vote as 
M 2 



138 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

I pleased, and fighting for them, also, to do as they 
pleased. I only asked them to support principles, 
not men ; and so they did, and will do it again. 

" I have the consolation to believe I did my 
duty before God and my country, which I consi- 
der a rich reward — better than gold or silver can 
procure. 

" I am now about to close, and from the manner 
in which I have said all, you will be satisfied that 
an apology was due from me. Nothing could have 
prompted me to speak as I have done but a pure 
sense of public duty. Every man ought to sound 
the alarm, and wake up the people to see their 
danger. 

" This day is a day on which every patriot 
ought to rejoice, and ought never to be forgotten. 
Yet I fear that the spirit of patriotism which on 
this day first kindled in the bosoms of our illustri- 
ous fathers, is fast extinguishing by the party that 
rules the destinies of this nation. God grant it may 
revive. 

" Gentlemen, I have detained you too long : 
allow me now to give you the following senti- 
ment : ' May the Whigs in the first district grow 
in strength, and increase in numbers, and teach 
their representative to knov/ the difierence be- 
tween Whigism and Jacksonism.' "- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 139 

I then thanked the people for their attention, 
and we repaired to the table, filled our glasses, and 
drank my toast. 

By this time Mr. Webster, Mr. Robbins, and 
Mr. Denny arrived, and were severally toasted, 
and each made a speech. The whole of the day 
was delightfully spent ; every body seemed pleas- 
ed, and I enjoyed myself much. 

Shortly after this the committee returned with 
me, and we went to the Chesnut-street theatre. 
Here I met a great concourse of people, all in a 
fine fourth of July condition. Immediately upon 
its being announced that I had arrived, I was called 
on from all quarters for a speech. I rose, and made 
an apology that I was so hoarse, speaking so much, 
that I could hardly be heard. However, no excuse 
would be taken ; so I was conveyed to the centre 
of the crowd, and made them a short address, pretty 
much like what I have before said. They gave me 
two or three thunders like you hear on the stage, 
and then went on with the show. 

I soon left them and returned to the hotel, and 
really was worn out with the scenes of the day 
and making three off-hand speeches ; and I have 
often thought since that nothing could have induced 
me to have done so, if it had not been in Philadel- 
phia, and on the fourth of July. I was stimulated 



]40 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

by being in sight of the old state-house and Inde- 
pendence square, where the fathers of our country 
met, as it was, with halters on their necks, and 
pubscribed their names to that glorious declaration 
gf independence. 

Nejct morning I was introduced to the great 
powder-maker, Mr. Dupont, who said to me, that 
he had been examining my fine gun, and that he 
wished to make me a present of half a dozen can- 
iiisterg of his best sportsman's powder. I thanked 
him, and he went off, and in a short time returned 
with one dozen, nicely boxed up and directed to 
jne. I then made my arrangements to start the 
pext morning. 

While walking about that evening with a friend, 
we called in at a China importer's store. I was 
Introduced to him ; and after looking at his splen- 
did collection for some time, he told me he had a 
wish to present me with a large pitcher. I thought 
the gentleman was joking, at first ; but he assured 
jne, that if I would accept it, he would pack it up 
in a box so that it could not break, and I could 
carry it home safely. I thanked him sincerely for 
his friendship. It was sent to me, and I carried it 
home and gave it to my wife, telling her that, when 
I was away, that pitcher should remind her that 
folks get thirsty, and the same spirit which 



COL. CKOCKETT'S TOUR. 141 

prompted the gentleman to give, should make us 
use it. I am sorry I have forgot his name. 

Early next morning I set out for Pittsburg, by 
the fast line, and had a very pleasant trip over the 
mountains. I attracted much attention as I passed 
through Pennsylvania, where it was known who I 
was. About the middle of the state I met with an 
old man in a tavern, and asked him who was his 
representative in Congress. " Why," says he, 
^' Dunlap." I told him that could not be, there 
was but one of that name in, and he was from Ten- 
nessee. *• Well," says he, " it must be Crawford." 
No, I told him, there was no Crawford in the 
House. " Well, hang it then, it must be George 
Chambers." — " Ah, now you're right; I know him 
well, he's a good fellow — walks the planks strait 
I hope you will re-elect him." — "Well, I expect 
we will ; I know nothing against him, only he 
isn't on our side." — " What side are you on ?" — 
"Well, I'm for Jackson."— " Why," said I, "I 
thought that was no side at all ; he's on top^ The 
old man looked at me right hard. Says I, " Mis- 
ter, what makes you for Jackson ?" — " Why," 
says he, " he licked the British at New Orleans, 
and paid off the national debt." — " Mister,'^ says 
I, " who was the officers and soldiers that fought 



142 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

at New Orleans besides General Jackson ?'^ He 
said he did not know. " Well," says I, " they 
ought to have a part of the glory, any how — now 
tell me whose money pays off the national debt ?" 
— " Why, I suppose, old Jackson's, as they keep 
so much talk about it." — " Well, now, my good 
old friend, suppose part of it was yours, and part 
mine, and part every body's else ; and suppose he 
would have been broke of his office if he had not 
paid out what a law of Congress, made twenty years 
ago, provided for paying, what is the glory of the 
whole of this?" He looked kind of stump't. I 
bid him good bye, and that he ought to read both 
sides, 

I arrived in Pittsburg in the night? and early 
in the morning went down to the wharf to inquire 
for a steamboat. I soon found Captain Stone, who 
commanded the Hunter. He said he had been 
waiting a day, for thinking that I would like to go 
with him. That was true, and I found him all 
sorts of a clever man. We were to start at ten 
o'clock. I returned to the tavern where I had put 
up, and a great many gentlemen called to see me, 
and among others, Mr. Grant, brother-in-law of 
Governor Carroll, of Tennessee. He invited me 
to walk through the city, and to visit his house, 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 143 

which I did, and he introduced me to a great many 
of the citizens. I returned, and prepared for a 
start. 

My acquaintance in this place was very limited. 
I had been there before, but my name had not made 
such a noise then as now. 

The marks of industry and enterprise are very 
visible in Pittsburg. It is a perfect workshop, 
and is increasing every year in extent, beauty, and 
population. The aqueduct, and other splendid 
works terminating the great canal from Philadel- 
phia, speaks highly for Pennsylvania foresight and 
perseverance. What signifies the debt incurred by 
her ; but it is no debt in my mind. It is a noble, 
imperishing, and increasing investment for posteri- 
ty ; and they will, to remotest ag6s, bless the men 
who have sustained so much abuse by the pack out 
of office, and will consider them as the greatest 
benefactors of their state, and of the nation. I say 
of the nation ; for this canal is a new artery in the 
body politic, through which the life-blood of its 
future prosperity and union will flow for ever. ItiS 
present facilities have brought a part of the state 
of Ohio, in point of cost of transportation, within 
two days' drive with a waggon of the city of Phi- 
ladelphia, and it will be lower still. Is hot this 
national in its operation ? Who can doubt it ? 



144 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

I had heard it said, particularly in New York, 
that this same canal never could get along, because 
their great western canal would carry all the pro- 
duce and merchandize ; and I took some pains to 
hear a little about it, and am fully persuaded such 
is not the fact, and never can be. I was informed 
that the trade on this Pennsylvania canal was four 
or five times what it was when the first year ended, 
and in a few years would be a profit to the state ; 
and to me it seems clear, that no one south of Pitts- 
burg, in Ohio, and elsewhere, are going to send 
their merchandize away round by the New York 
canal, and run the risks of the lake, when they can 
put them snug into a boat at Philadelphia, and land 
them safe, without risk, in Pittsburg. I wish I 
could agree with the Pennsylvanians as well in 
other respects as I do on internal improvements. 
What will she not do for her inhabitants in a few 
years, when her twenty odd millions, invested in 
all her vast and various improvements, shall yield 
but a moderate profit ! Her roads will all be paved; 
her rivers and creeks made navigable ; her schools 
be free for high and low, and her inhabitants free 
from taxation ! ! ! Reader, these events are sure 
to come. And here let me address a word to my 
own state. Go on with what little you have be- 
gun, and never rest until you have opened every 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 145 

facility through every part of our state. Though 
we are divided into east and west, we are all Ten- 
nessee. Give "a long pull, and a strong pull, and 
a pull altogether," and every difficulty will vanish. 
Give our inhabitants a chance among the rest of 
the states, and you'll not hear so much of Alaba- 
ma, or Arkansas, or Texas. 

Well, I've got a long slipe off from my steam- 
boat, the Hunter, and I had better look up the cap- 
tain. So oflf I starts, trunk, gun-case, old lady's 
pitcher, and all. " How's the water. Captain 
Stone?" — "Why, colonel, the river is pretty con- 
siderable for a run, but the water is cool as Pres- 
byterian charity, and the old Monongahela is a 
leetle of the remains of what Abigail, the wife of 
old Nab-all, carried as a present to David. Clear 
off the coal-dust out of your wizzand, and give us 
a yarn about your tower." — "Why, captain, may 
I be shot if you mightn't run with this same craft 
of yourn down, through, and out of Symmes's 
lower hole, and back again, afore I could get 
through half what I've seen : I've been clean away 
amongst the Yankees, where they call your name 
Sticnn.'' — "Me, Stunn ! well, it's hard that as 
slick a fellow as me should go by such nick- 
names. Livin gingers ! what d'ye suppose, colo- 
nel, they call me in Orlanes?" — "I dare say, some 
N 



146 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

hard name." — "Only think of the parly vous; 
some call me Mr. Peer, and some, by jingo, call 
me Mr. Peter; and you can't beat it out of them. 
Only think of Sam Gun, the fireman ; he took a 
spree with some of them Charlies in Orlanes, and 
they begun to call him Mounsheer Fusil. Well, 
Sam bore it a good while ; but at last he told Joe 
Head, the engineer, that the first fellow that mis- 
called his father's name should have a tip of his 
daddle. *Good,' says Joe; says he, ^Sam, ony 
take care of their caniffs, as how they call them 
long knives.' Well, it wasn't long before Sam 
peeled the bark off of a parly's knowledge-box, and 
so Joe and him had it with a cabin full of them. 
So Sam he got off to the boat, but the Calaboos 
men got Joe ; so Joe he sends for me, and when 
they cum for me, they passed the word that Mr. 
Tate had sent for me. Well, off I goes to the po- 
lice, and they axed me if I would go bail for Moun- 
sheer Tate. 'No,' says I ; 'don't know him.' — 
'Yes, but you do, captain,' said some one inside; 
and when I went in, who should it be but Joe 
Head ! transmogrified into Mounsheer Tate ! ! 
Well, we got the matter explained, and they all 
laughed and drunk friends. Well, colonel, here's 
to you ; Pm sure you didn't get any thing better 
any where ; and afore we quit, just tell me, did 



COL, CKOCKETT'S TOUR. I47 

you see the sea-sarpint ?" — " No, indeed, I did 
not, although I spoke for him not to be out of the 
way." — " Well, colonel, I wonder at them Yankee 
fellows, they are monstrous cute ; but I suspect 
they don't know much about snaking. I think 
with me in the Hunter here, you with your rifle, 
and one of these 'long shore Spaniards with his 
lasso, we'd give him a little of the hurricane tip't 
with thunder." — " If we didn't catch him," says 
I, " we could scare him out of his skin, and that's 
all they want at the museum." 

So we passed our time till we arrived opposite 
Wheeling. I walked up into the town, and was 
soon surrounded by many of the citizens, and in a 
short time was waited on by a committee, and in- 
vited to partake of a dinner that day at three o'clock. 
This kind invitation I was obliged to decline, least 
I should lose my passage. So tbsy treated me 
handsomely ; and asked the captain, before he 
started, to run a short distance up the river, and as 
he came past they would give him a salute. He 
did so. I got on the hurricane deck, took off my 
hat, and returned their salute. They continued to 
cheer until we got out of hearing. All went on 
well, and we arrived at the mouth of Guyandotte, 
where we took on board Messrs. Hardin, Tomp- 
kins, and Beatty, three of the members of Congress 



148 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

from Kentucky. We went on pleasantly until we 
arrived at Cincinnati. Our boat was fine, and the 
captain a clever fellow. It was night when we 
arrived ; so early next morning I called to see my 
two friends Messrs. Smiths and families, spent a 
short time with them, and returned to the boat 
By this time it was ascertained I was on board, 
and a committee waited on me and invited me to 
partake of a cold cut at three o'clock that day, and 
make them a speech. I agreed to do so. 

As I have all along vouched for myself of all 
my sayings and doings, it may be as well to get a 
little help ; so now I will let an extract from the 
Cincinnati Intelligencer speak for me. 

" Cincinnati^ Monday, July 14. 
"On Saturday last there was a very great ex^ 
citement in our city, in consequence of its being 
known that Colonel Crockett had reached Cincin- 
nati on his way home. Our citizens were gene- 
rally anxious to see him. An invitation was im- 
mediately addressed to the colonel, by as many of 
the Central Committee of the young Whigs as 
could be got together on the spur of the moment, 
inviting him to partake of a collation at the Com- 
mercial Exchange at two o'clock ; which invita- 
tion was accepted. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 149 

"After the collation Colonel Crocket was toasted, 
on which he stepped out on the balcony in front 
of the Exchange, and addressed the people as- 
sembled below. The colonel was received with 
great eclat. His good-natured honest face, his 
frank manner, and his shrewd remarks, pleased 
all. 

" By the kindness of E. P. Cranch, Esq., who is 
an admirable stenographer, we are enabled to pre- 
sent the colonel's speech to our readers, which we 
will do to-morrow. 

" We had the honour of a visit from the colonel 
in the morning, and were delighted with his frank 
and independent manner, his good-natured smile, 
and his witty observations. He said he would 
like to meet ' the gifted' before the people, and tell 
about his doings: some one by, laughingly ob- 
served, that he might get into a yellow jackets' 
nest. ^ That's what I want,' said the colonel ; 
'such yellow jackets have no sting.' 

" In the evening the colonel attended the theatre, 
and was there received with great applause on his 
entrance, by a large audience. If the colonel's 
constituents are as glad to see him as his fellow- 
countrymen generally, he will continue to " go 
ahead.' " 

n2 



150 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Speech of the Hon. David Crockett, 
" Gentlemen : 

" Friends and fellow-citizens of the city of Cinr 
cinnati. By the request of many of the citizens 
I will address a few words to you upon politics in 
general, and of the times and things of this goyernr 
ment. 

" Fellow-citizens : In the first place I cannot exr 
press my feelings of gratitude for your kind recep- 
tion. Again, gentlemen, I must apologize for the 
manner in which I speak. I am a plain, unedu- 
cated backwoodsman, and find some embarrassment 
in making an appropriate address to so intelligent 
an audience as that in Cincinnati. But, gentlemen, 
time and circumstances brmg things to pass, and 
make it necessary for me to do things which would 
be degrading to me at other times and under 
pther circumstances. 

" Time has been when I would have considered 
\t degrading to go into another man's district, and 
address his constituents upon politics. But I con- 
sider the time has come when every public servant 
is indebted to his country to speak out and sound 
the alarm, an4 let the country know the situation 
\i is in. We had our George the Third. He had 
his reign, qind what was it ? He brought distress 
on this country and this colony. He saw our fa- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 151 

thers take up the sword and pledge their lives, 
their fortunes, and their sacred honour, that they 
would be rid of the government of one man. They 
had laid their petitions before him ; they had 
humbled themselves at the foot of the throne. 
And what respect did they get ? None ; they 
and their petitions were treated with contempt. 
They declared war ; they swore they would be 
free ; and they were free. They and their chil- 
dren for fifty-eight years have been free. But in 
1834 what do we see ? We see ourselves arrived 
at a crisis when one man can hold the sword in 
this hand and the purse in that, and bid defiance 
to Congress and to the nation. That man is An- 
drew, the first king of this country. A king we 
wouldn't think so hard of across the Atlantic. But 
to have a king in our own country, putting up his 
will against the whole country, and declaring, that 
unless two-thirds of Congress will vote for a mear 
sure, he will veto it, is worse than George the 
Third or any other king of England would dare tq 
do. My friends, it would cost him not only his 
cap, but his head with it ! 

" But, with Andrew the First, it is my will, rny 
secretaries, my Congress, m,y government, m.y 
PEOPLE. This is the ' great Roman patriot.' This 
'S the ' hero of two wars.' This is the ^ greatest 



152 '^OL. CROCKETrs TOUR. 

and best' of mankind — the great ' Tennessee far- 
mer.' Where is the retrenchment and reform he 
promised ? Has he done it ? Gentlemen, I my- 
self was one of the first to fire a gun under An- 
drew Jackson. I helped to give him all his glory. 
But I liked him well once : but when a man gets 
too big for his breeches, I say Good bye. Gen- 
tlemen, this old superannuated governTnent (he 
calls himself the government) sanctions the mean- 
est action of his hirelings. There was his speaker, 
with his pay in his pocket, who packed his com- 
mittees. Gentlemen, he was looking across the 
Atlantic. They wanted to pass a vote of thanks 
for his services, and your humble servant wanted 
to know what the country had to thank him for. 
They wanted me to glorify him ; but they had too 
honest a cynic among them, to take glory for 
granted. The plenipotentiary elect was looking 
across the Atlantic : he couldn't see his own coun- 
try. He wanted to please the ' kitchen cabinet,' 
and the * greatest and best.' Yes, here were two 
humble citizens of Kentucky, waiting a whole ces 
sion for justice on a contested election. He — this 
great foreign minister speaker — cast round, and 
packed a committee ; ay, gentlemen, picked his 
men — one anti-administration man out of nine — ^to 
try justice between Letcher and Moore. I know 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 153 

not the politics of this one^ I believe he was an 
anti-mason : but the House sustained this one anti- 
administration man against all eight of the com- 
mittee. 

" Again, gentlemen : I am no lawyer — I have 
once been the part of a court — but I recollect that 
when a man once acts as a juror, he is incompetent 
to try the same case a second time. But here, the 
speaker took Frank Thomas, of Maryland, and an 
anti-bank whole-hog Jacksonman, and made him 
chairman. This is the way these hirelings, gentle- 
men, have been going on. I have watched them : 
I saw your famous representative — or misrepre- 
sentative, whichever you choose to call him — ^rise 
in the House, and show some instructions which 
you had sent him. He declared, * these are not 
my constituents ; they did not vote for me.' " 

[Here an individual, behind the speaker, inter- 
rupted him, and told him to direct his remarks 
that way, if he pleased, in a rough tone.] 

" Never seem to fret, my friend ; I shall direct 
my conversation where I please, so I'll go ahead, 

" Yes, fellow citizens, he disclaimed his consti- 
tuents, who could not make up their minds to vote 
for him. Now, gentlemen, for my part, I consider 
myself the people's servant. If a man votes against 
me, he has a right to do it. Are we only to repre- 



154 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

sent those who vote for us, when every man has a 
right to vote as he pleases ? A man, my friends, 
who can thus throw away his constituents, is no 
patriot. I maintain, a man does not forfeit his 
right to be represented because he did not vote for 
his representative. Let a man vote against me, 
and I am as much his representative as if he had 
voted for me ; this is my doctrine : and no man 
has a right to get up in the House and throw con- 
tempt upon any part of his constituents. I said to 
myself, I didn't know what sort of constituents he 
had, who would vote for him after this. I should 
expect, if I ever did a similar act by my constitu- 
ents, to be laid upon the table along with the un- 
finished business. 

" Now, gentlemen, I don't want to meddle in 
any man's district; I am talking to my country; 
I am speaking to the whole world ; I feel an inte- 
rest in all my countrymen. I love my country; I 
have fought for her liberties, and will do it again. 
I consider this country more in danger of a civil 
war than it was twelve months before the revolu- 
tion. We have fought and bled, and our fathers 
died, to save it from the dominion of a king. 

"Fellow citizens, when one man assumes all the 
responsibility, have we not a kingly government? 
None but the hireling and the slave will deny it. 



CX)L. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 155 

" Gentlemen, you have heard a great hue and 
cry against Messrs. Clay and Adams for extrava- 
gance — they were wasting the public treasure; 
they were squandering the people's money. Well, 
gentlemen, what do you think of retrenchments 
now ? What do you think of the ' old Roman,' the 
' old Tennessee farmer?' What has he done? Mr. 
Adams spent from ten to thirteen millions. But 
Captain Jackson spent from eighteen to twenty -two 
millions per annum ! What think you of old Ro- 
man retrenchment ? It is as true as the Lord's 
gospel. He has actually increased your expenses 
for you to eighteen or twenty-two millions! 

" But the people are ignorant j they will still 
huzza for Jackson, they have been used to it so 
long. If you go into the country, and tell the peo- 
ple of these things — abuses, extravagance, usurpa- 
tions, and all, and prove every word you say — 
' Oh,' say they, ' Jackson has been in office a long 
time, he must be doing what's right.' 

" But I will put the documents into every hole 
and corner of the country. I will show the people 
how Andrew Jackson is surrounded by a set of 
the most cursed scoundrels that ever moved j and 
the old man suffers himself to be a perfect tool in 
their hands, to deceive and ruin the country, and 
to destroy its peace and harmony. But I for one 



156 ^01^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

love my country. I'll speak my mind ; I'll pro- 
claim the truth, and the people shall know whal 
I've seen and heard. Now, gentlemen, you have 
heard a great noise about the post-office ; and you 
have heard that the bank is the worst of all mon- 
sters, which employs all power in electioneering. 
A gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Clay, made a 
great speech, and said it was a question between 
liberty and slavery ; a question between the bank 
and the country. Now if he had only rubbed out 
bank and put in executive, his speech would have 
been first-rate. It is the executive, gentlemen, 
that is throwing all its mighty power into the 
elections. 

" But the post-office I wish to give you a little 
hint of. When your friend and fellow townsman 
left it, there were ^230,000 surplus funds belong- 
ing to it. The ' greatest and best' has expended 
that surplus, and got the department bankrupt 
^800,000 in five years. Will you take this re- 
trenchment ? I won't take it, and I don't believe 
the country is going to. 

" Fellow-citizens, this is wh-at ' the greatest and 
best' has done for you. 

" Talk about the bank's electioneering ; see what 
the post-office electioneering has cost you. Why, 
*n my district we never used to ask for more than 



COL. CROCKETrS TOUR. 157 

a little horse mail : a pocket handkerchief would 
have carried all we wanted. But when Davy 
Crockett was beat, and a Jackson man came in, we 
had a four*horse stage, stretching all over the coun- 
try. * Oh, what a fine president is Jackson V said 
they. — * Oh,' says I, * you poor devils, you will 
have to pay for it.' Well, so after a while they 
have a coach from Reynoldsburgh to Paris, from 
Paris to Dresden, and thence straight to Mills 
Point. But they left out Troy, and the people of 
Obion county began to talk about leaving out Fitz. 
Mr. Barry immediately ordered his contractors to 
run anywhere to get Fitz in : so he run the coach 
fifteen miles out of the way to Troy, till the elec- 
tion was over, and then withdrew every stage from 
the district, except one running straight through. 
Troy had not even a horse mail, though a county 
town ; and they had to write to me at Washington, 
and I had to jog the postmaster-general's elbow 
and make him give them a mail. 

"Fellow-citizens, I would willingly speak more ; 
my pride is to speak to the people — but my indis- 
position prevents my going on. I hope, therefore, 
you will excuse me in concluding sooner than I 
could wish. 

" May the Whigs increase in numbers and grow 
in strength, and send one to represent them tha 



158 ^<^^^ CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

can serve his country, instead of being the tool of 
a party.'' 

I remained over night, and took the packet boat 
next morning for Louisville, where I arrived the 
day after. My friends had provided for me at the 
Louisville hotel, the finest public house I have 
been in west of the mountains. I was asked to 
make a speech to the people next day, which I 
agreed to, as I had no hope of getting off in a boat 
for a few days. It was published that I was to speak 
on the next day evening ; so I was sent for in the 
morning to visit Jeffersonville Springs, in Indiana, 
across the river. I went, and found a number of 
ladies and gentlemen ; and after being introduced 
to the company, I was asked to make a speech, to 
which I had but little objection, as I wished to dis- 
cuss the question of the president vetoing the Wa- 
bash appropriation, and yet signing the Van-Bu- 
ren, New-York, Hudson-river bill. This I did, and 
the people appeared well pleased. I partook of 
some of the good things of this life with them, ex- 
horting all Jackson Van Buren men to turn from 
the evil of their ways, and took myself off for the 
other side of the river. 

In the evening I attended at the court-house, 
and met the largest concourse of people that ever 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 159 

has been assembled in Louisville since it has been 
settled. This I was told by a gentleman who had 
resided there for upwards of twenty years. The 
people all appeared to be excited with curiosity, or 
something else. I had no idea of attracting so 
much attention ; but there I was in the thick of 
them. I discovered there were a great many 
ladies amongst the audience, and among them the 
celebrated Mrs. Drake. A stand had been erected 
for me in the court-house yard, on which I stood, 
and addressed the crowd as follows : 

Fellow Citizens of Louisville, 
" By my misfortune in not getting a boat as I 
expected, I am detained among you for a short 
time. I have been requested by many citizens 
to address you on the political history of our coun- 
try. This I would most assuredly have refused in 
common times ; but from recent occurrences which 
have taken place at head-quarters, I conceive it 
due from every public servant to present to the 
people the real and true situation of our once hap- 
py country. This I have come to the conclusion 
is the duty of every public servant, no matter 
where his lot may be cast ; and all that I am sorry 
for is, that the citizens of Louisville had not a 



IQQ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

more capable organ to perform that duty than your 
humble servant. 

" But apologies are needless in such times as 
this. Upon this occasion I am compelled to go 
back to the former pledges of our present chief 
magistrate. And, fellow citizens, what do me and 
all mean by pledges ? Is it any more or less than 
a solemn contract made between a candidate for 
any office and the people who elect him, that his 
sentiments are so and so, and that he will support 
such and such principles. The people do their 
part of the contract, trusting to the integrity of the 
candidate to perform his. Well, suppose he turns 
right round, and acts opposite to what he promis- 
ed. Has he not acted a fraud upon the people ? 
Is it not political hypocrisy and moral dishonesty ? 

"Suppose a clergyman was to come here and 
preach in a vacant congregation, with his eye on 
the situation, and would preach up your own doc- 
trines of foreordination and the Trinity, and so on, 
and tell you these were his own doctrines, and you 
would elect him ; and no sooner was he warm in 
his place than he would preach the doctrines of 
Unitarianism, or any other different from what you 
all thought, and what he professed ; would you 
not drive him out of his place, with disgrace 
stamped on his forehead ? I am sure you would. 



' COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 161 

"Well, that point being settled, what was An- 
drew Jackson's pretended principles when he was 
before the American people, aspiring to the office 
he now fills ? I cannot say the one he now ho- 
nours ; and I regret that my duty to my country 
compels me to make the remark. But I know 
no party further than I conceive they are support- 
ing the best interests of the country. 

" Now, gentlemen, we will review his course. 
He was then the firm friend and supporter of in- 
ternal improvements by the general government ; 
and you had the evidence of it by his vote on the 
canal round the falls of this place, besides many 
other votes of his upon objects of a similar nature. 

" He was then in favour of the tariff; and most 
of all, he was to reform the government, and re- 
trench its expenditures ! ! 

" Yes, gentlemen, the whole continent of Ame- 
rica was convulsed with the hue and cry which 
was raised against Adams's extravagant adminis- 
tration, his corrupt administration, his party prin- 
ciples administration, his Panama assumption of 
power. He and Clay were indulging in the most 
wanton waste of the people's money, by giving a 
few thousand dollars to publishers of the laws ; 
and that they would shortly ruin the government, 
was echoed from one end of this continent to the 
o 2 



162 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

other ; and in fact I was made to believe, and I am 
sure many of you also, that Adams and Clay were 
two of the greatest scoundrels in the world. I 
joined in the shout, and huzzaed for Jackson. I 
thought we were to get rid, perhaps, of two of the 
worst men on earth. 

"We succeeded. The people honestly — the 
leaders triumphantly; how else, they must an- 
swer hereafter. When we hurled them from their 
seats, we were to see the country prosper, and the 
country united like a band of brothers. This is 
what we had a right to expect, for we have but 
one interest in common as a great nation. 

" When thus our expectations were raised for 
peace, and harmony, and public interest, what did 
we see ? The first inquiry by Andrew Jackson 
was, who has dared to vote against me ? and the 
man that had done this was compelled to take to 
his heels. He received his walking ticket His 
services were no longer required. 

"We saw men that had grown gray in the ser- 
vices of their country, hurled from their station, to 
make way for lickspittles and yelpers. 

"The second inquiry was, who has huzzaed 
longest and loudest for the chief? he is qualified 
to fill any office under the government. 

"Still we hear this practice and principle called 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 163 

democracy j the true republican principle. If this 
is republicanism, I confess I never knew the mean- 
ing of it. I had always thought, and yet think, 
that the true principle of republicanism is for every 
free man in this nation to vote for whom he 
pleases, and no man has a right to censure his mo- 
tives. If this kind of Jacksonism is what they 
call democracy and republicanism, God deliver me 
from it as soon as possible. 

"Here we see a sett of office-seekers and office- 
holders ready to huzzah for any and every thing 
that Jackson recommends, and what they lack in 
quality is made up in quantity ; and what they 
lack in influence is made up in money : witness 
the testimony of Mr. Noah, in New York, and 
others, who prove that the office-holders had to 
shell out a part of their salary to support Jackson- 
ism and Jackson candidates. 

"In old times, that is, in the prodigal times of 
Adams and Clay, there was forty-four clerks in 
the post-office department, and now there is, I am 
informed, ninety -six ; and at the last session, 
there was a modest demand made on Congress for 
forty thousand dollars to pay for extra clerks. 

"Now that I have commenced upon that de- 
partment — but stop, I beg pardon. It was called, 
in good old times, the general post-office j but when 



X64 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOTTR. 

Jackson wanted to make Major T3arry a member 
of the cabinet, he created it into a department; 
and as the cabinet was composed of the heads of 
department, why the major walked in, took his 
seat for the first time, and so has continued. Now, 
as the general post-office has to settle its accounts 
finally, or ought to, in the treasury, I don't see why 
little Hayward, commissioner of the general land- 
office, an't one of the cabinet too. Pm sure, if de- 
votion is any recommendation, Elijah has the pass- 
port. 

"Now let us go back a little. When Mr. 
McLean began in that office, it was one hundred 
and eighty thousand dollars drawback on the go- 
vernment, and an appropriation had to be made to 
meet it. In the course of his management, he had 
made it defray its own expenses, and left two hun- 
dred and eighty-six thousand dollars of surplus, 
ready for Mr. Barry to take hold of; and now Mr. 
Barry has had it the same length of time under 
the glorious days of retrenchment and reform, anc' 
what is its present situation ? He has exhausted 
the surplus that Mr. McLean had actually mac a 
by his prudence and management, and has actually 
got the department into such a state, that it is 
about half a million worse than nothing. This is 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 165 

the report to Congress, and I have not heard it 
contradicted. 

"What else could have been expected. Ask the 
citizens of Washington, and members of Congress, 
and they will tell you that the general post-office 
is called the general hospital, the poor-house, the 
lazaretto, where ^ black spirits and white, blue spi- 
rits and gray' are provided for without regard to 
qualification ; and these creatures are actually put 
over the heads of the honest old fellows who have 
worked day by day for twenty years ; and if they 
could only get along without them, they'd be turn- 
ed out with a horse-cake and a boiled egg for their 
last dinner. 

"Still the department is flourishing: for the 
president sends it forth to the world, under his 
own signature, in his messages for the last three 
years, that the post-office department was in a most 
flourishing condition, and out of its own resources 
was extending facilities to the whole country; 
when at the same time, Mr. Postmaster-General 
was borrowing money in hundreds of thousands of 
dollars, secretly, out of your pet banks — for what? 
just to gull the people, by paying ofi* contract- 
ors, to keep them from exposing the true situa- 
tion of their concerns, while they were huzzaw- 
ing Jackson in a second time, and they effected 



IQQ COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

their object. The true state of that whole concern 
has yet to be known to the American people ; and 
if it ever does, my word for it, it will be worse 
than you think for. Extra pay may bring extra 
services to accommodate the public, and this would 
be well enough ; but it also produces extra servi- 
lity, extra impudence, extra electioneering, extra 
provision for friends, extra votes, extra trumped-up 
charges, extra printing offices, and extra loans for 
extra kindnesses : 

Tickle me, Davy, tickle me true. 
And in my turn, I'll tickle you too.* 

But what is most extra of all, it changes two-horse 
stages into four-horse post-coaches; and when Hhe 
parson' is called out to see them, he says, *0h no, 
it's Sunday ; it's all right' 

*^Well, it may be all right; but I know a thing 
or two about these ' mail facilities,' as they are now 
called. Before General Jackson's last election, you 
could see the four-horse post-coaches flying in 
every direction in my district ; and they would 
send one of them to carry a mail that would not 
fill a pocket-handkerchief The people cried out, 
^see what a man Jackson is for accommodating the 
country; look how he is improving the mails.' 
They never stopped to inquire who had to pay for 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 157 

all this nonsense; and they didn't see the con- 
tractor sitting with his segar and bottle of wine, 
laughing, and singing, 

Though Dominie Felix got the meat, 

'Twas I that lopp'd the gravy ; 

With my two-horse, four-horse, four-horse, two-horse, 

Break the parson's poney,' &c. &c. 

"A circumstance took place in my district which 
I will mention. When in Congress, some time 
since, I tried to get a stage-route from Reynolds- 
burg to Paris, and Dresden, and Troy ; then to 
Mills' Point, on the Mississippi ; but I could not 
succeed ; the public convenience did not demand it. 

"As soon as Mr. Fitzgerald, my successor, one 
of the true stripe, went on, it was thought highly im- 
portant to have the route established that I wanted. 
Well, in fixing the route, they left out Troy, in Obi- 
on county ; and the people there began to complain 
of Mr. Fitzgerald, that he had neglected them, and 
in all probability they might neglect him at the 
next election. This pleased me very well; but 
the first thing I knew, about four weeks before the 
election, here came orders from head-quarters to 
the contractor to run by Troy ; by all means do 
every thing in his power to promote Mr. Fitzge- 
rald's election. I then told the people their accom- 



163 COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 

modation would last no longer than the election 
was over ; which turned out to be true. The route 
from Dresden, by Troy, to Mills' Point, is fifteen 
miles further than the one that the stage went be- 
fore the new arrangement : but, to the surprise of 
the Troy people, just so soon as the election was 
over, they were left without even a horse-mail, 
stage, or any thing else, until I came on to Con- 
gress and got them a mail. And yet we hear those 
democrats talk of the monster — the Bank of the 
United States — meddling in the elections of the 
people. This is only one item among thousands 
that I have no doubt they have been guilty of 

" I will now dismiss this subject, and turn your 
attention to one of a more recent date — a subject 
that has almost shaken the confidence of the nation 
— I mean the removing of the public deposites. 

'^ If a common citizen were to violate the laws 
of his country, the voice of the community would 
be raised against him ; every body would cry out, 
' punish him.' Well, now, if the chief magistrate 
of this country violates the laws, is he not more 
culpable than a common citizen ? I say he is, and 
ought to be more severely punished ; because he 
knows better, and there is no excuse for him. 
Now let us reason this case. In 1811, the charter 
of the old Bank of the United States run out, and 



COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 1^9 

Congress refused to recharter it, and we were com- 
pelled, for several years, to deposit the revenue of 
the country in the identical kind of banks that 
General Jackson tells us he is now depositing 
the revenue in ; when it is well known that the 
local banks were more solvent than they are now. 
In about five years — say till in 1816 — by making 
these local banks places of deposit, this govern- 
ment lost one million five hundred thousand dol- 
lars to the country. 

" In 1816, Congress found that it was impossible 
for this great nation to get on without a national 
currency; and they then chartered the present 
Bank of the United States, for twenty years. As 
part of her charter, this bank gave the United 
States one million five hundred thousand dollars, 
for the use of the public deposites during her char- 
ter. Now you may call this what you please, or 
by any name you choose : it was a hire, or a pur- 
chase ; I care not which. The bank had a right to 
the use of the deposites until the last day of her 
charter. The House of Representatives had de- 
clared, on solemn vote, that the deposites were safe; 
and this bank had actually paid out upwards of 
four hundred and sixty millions of dollars, without 
one cent of loss or expense to the government ; 
yet three years nearly, before its charter expires, 



170 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

we see Andrew Jackson say to that honest nian^ 
William J. Duane, the secretary of the treasury, 
^remove the deposit esP He said neither his con- 
science nor his duty required it. He was struck 
from the roll, as many an honest man before him 
had been, for refusing to shape his conscience by 
the president's, and to bow to the orders of the 
* greatest and the best.' And this is democracy II 
" He got his walking orders, and Taney was 
taken into his place. Why? Because he had 
agreed to do what Duane had refused. Well, the 
deposites are removed. General Jackson says, 
' Come, do what you promised ; issue the order ; I 
take the responsibility.' Who removed the depo- 
sites ? The law says the secretary of the treasury 
may; but did he? No; I say Jackson removed 
them : and in this, I contend, he violated the laws 
of the country; and I always believed he ought to 
have been punished in some way or other. As to 
his constitutional scruples, he had none, or his 
friends have told what was not true, which I do 
not believe ; for it was not a very long time before 
that he said, if the new charter had been submitted 
to him, he could have made certain alterations in 
it that would have reconciled him! — reconciled 
him to a breach of the constitution! Yet this is 
true. But Major Downing spoke the truth when 



COI^. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 171 

he said it was a ' tarnel fight 'twixt the old ginne- 
ral and Nick Biddle.' And I believe now that if 
a good well-trained Van Buren man had been at 
the head of it, the bank would have had no troU' 
ble, not even from the Buffalo branch agent and 
chancellor of Wall-street. Cam is a pretty cute 
North Carolinaer. He took the thousand for his 
agency, for fear the bank might bribe some honest 
man with it. Blair acted, I suppose, on the same 
principle of diminishing her ability of corruption, 
when he paid her his debt of some fifteen or twenty 
thousand with two or three hundred. 

"Well, well, Jackson did it, and he is an honour- 
able man : so are they all honourable men. He 
now holds the purse and the sword ,* he has every 
dollar in the treasury at his control ; and what is 
this but actual despotism ? 

" One word, as I pass, to the honest man who 
may be connected with these pet banks. ' Do you 
sleep sound, when you know that your name is on 
the paper, binding you and yours to repay the 
money deposited in the bank where you are a di- 
rector, and have but one voice in twelve to prevent 
its being loaned out to Tom, Dick, or Harry? 
Kemember, that a day of reckoning is coming; 
2ind a treasury warrant isn't as nice reading as an 
invitation to drink wine that another man pays for* 



172 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Wake up ; mind your wife and children ; get your 
name off, if you can.' 

" Cgesar said, ' Give me money, and I can buy 
men ; give me men, and I can make power ; I'll 
take the responsibility.' I have said before, and 
now repeat it, there is no use in voting appropria- 
tions, until there is some law to know where the 
money is. The money of the people has been re- 
moved from where the law placed it ; and the same 
power that did this will bear him out in distribut- 
ing it at his will. He has taken the responsibility; 
and I, for one, say. Go ahead. The people will 
come to their senses when they feel the effects 
which it must produce. 

"The truth is, the president is surrounded by a 
set of the greatest scrubs on earth ; just using him 
to promote their own interest. The little magi- 
cian looks as innocent as a lamb, and I do believe 
he is the wire-worker, the very mover and organ 
of all those high-handed and lawless measures ; he 
is worming his way to the presidency, and like a 
real Gopher, works more under thsin above ground. 

"When I was first elected I knew nothing about 
this party discipline ; but I must confess I have 
seen so much of that, I am sorry to say I do doubt 
the honesty of many men that are called good at 
home, that have given themselves up to serve a 



eOL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I73 

party. I am no man's man. I bark at no man's 
bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and 
carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white 
house, no matter who he is. And if this petty, un- 
patriotic scuffling for men, and forgetting princi- 
ples, goes on, it will be the overthrow of this once 
happy nation, and the blood and toil of our ances- 
tors will have been expended in vain, 

" I will go for the man for the next presidency 
who I think has his country's interest at heart, and 
who in reality, and not in words, is determined to 
preside over this people as if we were brothers, and 
who, instead of fomenting hatred, and jealousy, and 
strife, by infusing into them his own low, vulgar, 
and partisan feelings, will set them a high and holy 
example of devotion to the harmony and interests 
of all. God grant such a candidate may present 
himself ! 

" Gentlemen, I have detained you longer than I 
expected ; but ' out of the fulness of the heart the 
mouth speaketh.' I thank you for your attention, 
and wish you all health, happiness, and honour, in 
fearlessly doing your duty to your country." 

I then returned to the hotel, and in a short time 
a committee of the young men waited on me, 
and invited me to a dinner on Thursday, as a 
p2 



174 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

testimony in favour of my political course. I 
gave a conditional acceptance, and no boat arriv- 
ing, I attended, and partook with them of a splen- 
did dinner. I was toasted, and made a speech, 
complimenting the young men for their zeal in the 
cause of their country. If I had the powers of 
General Lafayette, I would have written out all 
my speeches ; but I have not, and therefore omit 
this one. All passed off pleasantly, and next day 
I took the steamboat Scotland, commanded by 
Captain Buckner, a gentleman, every inch of him. 
After a fine run, we arrived at Mills' Point, on the 
22d day of July. Here I once more touched the 
soil of Tennessee, and found my son William wait- 
ing to carry me home, which was distant thirty- 
five miles. 

When I landed, and took out my fine gun, the 
folks gathered round me, to see the great curiosity. 
A large fellow stepped up, and asked me why all 
the members did not get such guns given them. 
I told him I got that gun for being honest, in sup- 
porting my country, instead of bowing down and 
worshipping an idol. He looked at me and said, 
that was very strong. " No stronger than true, my 
friend," said I. 

In a short time I set out for my own home ; yes, 
my own home, my own soil, my own humble 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 175 

dwelling, my own family, my own hearts, my 
ocean of love and affection, which neither circum- 
stance nor time can dry up. Here, like the wea- 
ried bird, let me settle down for a while, and shut 
out the world. **** 

In the course of a few days, I determined to try 
my new gun upon the living subject. I started for 
a hunt, and shortly came across a fine buck. He 
fell at the distance of one hundred and thirty steps I 
Not a bad shot, you will say. I say, not a bad gun 
either. After a little practice with her, she came 
up to the eye prime, and I determined to try her 
at the first shooting match for beef. 

As this is a novelty to most of my readers, I will 
endeavour to give a description of this western 
amusement 

In the latter part of summer our cattle get 
very fat, as the range is remarkably fine ; and some 
one, desirous of raising money on one of his cat- 
tle, advertises that on a particular day, and at a 
given place, a first-rate beef will be shot for. 

When the day comes, every marksman in the 
neighbourhood will meet at the appointed place, 
with his gun. After the company has assembled, 
a subscription paper is handed round, with the 
following heading • 



176 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

" A. B, offers a beef worth twenty dollars, to be 
shot for, at twenty-five cents a shot." Then the 
names are put down by each person, thus : 

D. C. puts in four shots, . ^1 00 

E. F. " eight " . . 2 00 
G. H. " two " . . 50 

And thus it goes round, until the price is made 
up. 

Two persons are then selected, who have not 
entered for shots, to act as judges of the match. 
Every shooter gets a board, and makes a cross in 
the centre of his target. The shot that drives the 
centre, or comes nearest to it, gets the hide and 
tallow, which is considered the first choice. The 
next nearest gets his choice of the hind quarters ; 
the third gets the other hind quarter ; the fourth 
takes choice of the fore quarters ; the fifth the re- 
maining quarter ; and the sixth gets the lead in the 
tree against which we shoot. 

The judges stand near the tree, and when a man 
fires they cry out, " who shot ?'^ and the shooter 
gives in his name ; and so on, till all have shot. 
The judges then take all the boards, and go off by 
themselves, and decide what quarter seach man 
Jias won. Sometimes one will get nearly all. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 177 

This is one of our homely amusements — enjoyed 
as much by us, and perhaps more, than most of 
your refined entertainments. Here each man takes 
a part, if he pleases, and no one is excluded, unless 
his improper conduct renders him unfit as an as- 
sociate. 

My few weeks of remaining at home passed 
quickly round, and I found myself once more on 
the move towards the city of Washington. 

Having promised my friend Chilton to spend a 
day or two with him on my way, I arrived at 
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, about the middle of 
November, 1834. By the kindness and partiality 
of the citizens, a public dinner was given to me, 
the whole proceedings concerning which are here 
inserted at large, as follows : — 

DINNER TO THE HON. DAVID CROCKETT. 

The Hon. David Crockett arrived in this place 
on Saturday last, and much anxiety was evinced 
by many of our good citizens to behold this west- 
ern wonder. Many conjectures were afloat rela- 
tive to his personal appearance : some supposed 
that he would not appear as very man, but in all 
probability would assume the form of some comical 
or hideous monster. It is needless to say that such 
were disappointed in their expectations. He 



178 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

seemed to us to resemble very much the appear* 
ance of other great men — shrewd, intelligent, and 
graceful; with a commanding, lofty aspect, and a 
dignified, manly countenance. On Wednesday last 
he was invited to attend a public dinner, given by 
the citizens of this place at the hotel of H. G. 
Wintersmith, Esq.; where many gentlemen from 
the country were in attendance. After the cloth 
was removed, the company being called to order, 
Major James Crutcher was appointed president, 
and Dr. Harvey Slaughter vice-president. The 
whole proceedings were conducted with the utmost 
order and regularity, and went off in the most 
pleasing and friendly manner. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

Elizabethtotvrif Ky. Nov, ISth, 
Hon. D. Crockett: 
Sir, — A respectable portion of the citizens of 
our village are desirous of giving you public testi- 
mony of their high regard. They have had a 
meeting, and appointed the undersigned a com- 
mittee to solicit your attendance at a public dinner 
to be given at Mr. H. G. Wintersmith's hotel, on 
to-morrow, the 19th inst. We earnestly hope, sir, 
it will suit your convenience to accept the proffered 
hospitality. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I79 

With sincere wishes for your public and private 
prosperity^ we have the honour to be, 

Your obedient servants, 

H. MULHOLLAND, 

W. Conway, 

B. J. A. Young, 

Geo. p. Brown, 

Wm. Conway. 
Hon, D. Crockett^ Presents 

ElizahetMown, Nov, \Qth, 
Gentlemen : — I have this moment had the 
honour to receive your polite note of to-day, in- 
viting me, in behalf of many of the citizens of 
Elizabeth town, to partake of a public dinner kindly 
proposed to be given me on to-morrow, at the hotel 
of H. G. Wintersmith, Esq. 

A due sense of the honour and kindness done 
me, constrains me to accept your invitation. This 
I do, not as a matter of mere form, but with deep 
sensibility and unfeigned gratitude for the flatter^ 
ing token of respect which so unexpected an atten- 
tion confers. This honour is ^^q more highly es- 
teemed, because it is bestowed hy part of a people 
proverbial over the civilized wortd for their valour 
and love of liberty^ The name of Kentucky will 
be gratefully remembered, as long as deeds of chi- 
valry are respected, and shall have a place in the 
page of history. 



80 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Gentlemen : The best return I can make for 
your generous hospitality to me, is to tender you 
my warmest thanks, and to assure you that this 
mark of your respect and regard shall be long 
cherished in my memory and affections. 

Be pleased, gentlemen, to accept for yourselves 
and for those you represent, my best wishes for 
your health and prosperity ; and believe me, grate- 
fully and respectfully, your ob't serv't. 

David Crockett. 
Messrs. H. Mulhollcmd, W, Conway^ B. J. A, Young, Geo. F. 

Brown, and Wm. Conway, Esqrs. 

Elizabethtown, Nov. I8tk, 
Hon. Tho. Chilton, 

Sir, — A number of your fellow citizens of Eli- 
zabethtown expect the pleasure, on to-morrow, at 
H G. Wintersmith's hotel, of dining with the Hon. 
David Crockett. Your presence, sir, on the occa- 
sion, would be gratifying to the committee, indi- 
vidually, and pleasing to those they represent. 

We have the honour to be, most respectfully, 
your fellow citizens, 

H. MULHOLLAND, 

W. 'Conway, 
B. J. A. Young, 
Geo. p. Brown, 
Wm. Conway. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 181 

My Residence^ Nov. 18. 

Gentlemen, — I have this moment received your 
very polite note of invitation to dine with many 
of my valued friends on to-morrow, at Mr. Win- 
tersmith's hotel, in Elizabethtown. 

As I shall be at that time on my way to Wash- 
ington city, and shall have an opportunity afforded 
me of taking my leave of you, I can accept your 
kind invitation without detriment; which I ac- 
cordingly do. 

Please accept assurances of my personal friend- 
ship, and best wishes for yourselves, as a com- 
mittee on the part of my fellow citizens ; and do 
me the favour to communicate to those whom 
you represent, that I duly appreciate the ho- 
nour and kindness which their politeness have 
conferred. 

I am, truly, yours, 

Tho. Chilton. 

Messrs. H. Mulholhmd^ W. Conway^ B. J. A. Young, Geo. P. 
Brown, and JVm. Conway, Esqrs^ 

TOASTS. 

The Federal Constitution — A great monument 
of wisdom and patriotism. 

The Union of the States — A bond indispensa- 
ble and sacred to American liberty. 

a 



182 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Nullijication — A political heresy ; an enemy to 
our blood-bought Union. 

Proscription — The vengeance of petty tyrants ; 
the scourge of independence ; the bane of free- 
dom. 

Our Guests — The Hon. David Crockett — 
The honest, independent representative from Ten- 
nessee : we would say unto him, " Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant : go ahead." 

Here Mr. Crockett rose, and addressed the meet- 
ing as follows : 

" Gentlemen, 

"I promised my friend, your representative, long 
ago, that I would visit this place ; but it has been 
inconvenient for me to come until the present 
time : and I can assure the citizens of Elizabeth- 
town that I had no expectation of attracting any 
attention ; and I must say, that I am at a loss for 
language to express my gratitude for your kind 
and hospitable attention. 

" Gentlemen, for your complimentary senti- 
ment, I feel bound, by a sense of duty, to make 
a few remarks ; and in doing so, I have no doubt 
but I shall owe you an apology; for I shall be 
compelled to address you in homespun language — 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 183 

in my own plain manner : for I have never had 
the opportunity of an education, which enables 
men to use the refined language that is common 
for gentlemen to use, filling a high station, such as 
I have been chosen to fill, by a portion of the peo- 
ple of Tennessee. In making my remarks, I will 
be reluctantly obliged to say some harsh things 
about the acts of a man I once supported. I was 
one of General Jackson's first soldiers ; I helped 
him to get his glory; and I was as sincere in my 
support of him as any man in America. I had 
heard the hue and cry against Messrs. Adams and 
Clay; they were called the prodigals: it was sung 
' from one end of the continent to the other, that 
the prodigals were indulging in a wasteful system 
that would soon bankrupt the nation. I believed 
this was all true, and I joined in the cry to put 
them down. We accomplished the object; we 
hurled them from power. I then hoped to see 
peace, and expected to see my country flourish. I 
recollected the famous letter of 1823, from Andrew 
Jackson to Mr. Monroe. That letter contained 
good advice. Mr. Monroe was told to destroy 
the monster party — to be the president of the peo- 
ple. From that letter, we had a right to expect 
under Jackson's reign we would have an end of 
party strife. But I regret to say, instead of his 



184 ^^^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

acting up to his own wholesome advice, as soon as 
he took his seat as president, the first inquiry 
was, 'who has had the audacity to vote against 
Andrew Jackson ?' The man that had dared to do 
this, had to take to his heels ; he got his walking 
ticket; he had to give up his place for some 
huzza-partizan of Andrew Jackson. 

"The next question was, who had huzzaed most 
and loudest for the 'greatest and best?' The man 
that had, was qualified to fill any office in the 
government. Then we saw men who had grown 
gray in the service of their country, and who un- 
derstood their duty, turned out of office to make 
room for the worshippers of Andrew Jackson. 

"You know, gentlemen, we were promised re- 
form; the expenditures of the government were 
to be retrenched. These things were promised ; 
these things the people expected to see done. Un- 
der the prodigals' reign, the expenditures of the 
government were from ten to thirteen millions ; 
under the reign of the retrenchment-gentlemen, we 
see, from their own reports, they are from eighteen 
to twenty -two millions ! Is this to be taken for 
retrenchment? It may suit some people, but it 
does not suit me. 

"Gentlemen, I am now against Jackson. I 
wanted to remain with him, but I found I could 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 1§5 

not stand the pull. I am no man-worshipper. I 
saw he wanted eA^ery body to follow him, right or 
wrong. And when I saw I could not be honest 
and be his friend, I set up shop for myself. 

"Now, gentlemen, I shall have to go back to the 
old days of 1776, to the reign of King George the 
Third, for a comparison with King Andrew the 
First. He brought oppression after oppression 
upon the American colonies, till his burthens be- 
came intolerable. The people laid their petitions 
in heaps at the feet of his majesty. They were 
treated with silent contempt. And at length the 
tea tax was laid, and our fathers met in the old 
State-house in Philadelphia, and there subscribed 
to the glorious Declaration of Independence. They 
pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honour, that they would be free. Free from what ? 
Free from British tyranny, and free from despot- 
ism, and free from the government of one man. It 
was not the amount claimed that they despised. It 
was the condition, the principle on which it was 
to be paid. What ensued ? War ; a bloody war ! 
and some of the best patriots that ever lived pe- 
rished in the conflict. Their fortunes, their lives 
were sacrificed to obtain a government of laws. 
They gained it ; and they and their children have 
q2 



186 COL. CROCKETTS TOUR. 

lived under it for fifty-eight years, the happiest 
people under the sun. 

"Now, in 1834, we see the same page open in 
our political history, which in '76 was written in 
letters of blood : — one man holding the sword of 
the nation in one hand, and seizing in the other 
the purse of the people, bidding defiance to Con- 
gress, to the laws, and to the nation. Andrew 
Jackson has said, that if Congress dared to pass any 
bill that did not meet his approbation, he would 
veto it Is this not setting Congress at defiance? 
Is this not saying, *my will shall be the law of the 
land?' Such grievances as these our fathers fought 
to get rid of. What would any of you say, if a 
comnion citizen were to violate the laws of his 
country ? You would all say, ' punish him ; punish 
him ;' and I contend, that in a free country, in a 
republican government, no man should be above 
the laws ; no man should be permitted to trample 
upon the laws of his country, and go without 
punishment. And I hold it to be sound doctrine, 
that if the chief magistrate violate the laws, he is 
more culpable than a common man, and should be 
more severely punished, because he knows the 
laws, and tramples them under foot wilfully. 
"You all know, that in 1811, the old bank charr 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 187 

ter expired, and that Congress refused to re-charter 
it. We were compelled to deposit the revenue in 
local banks ; the identical same kind of banks that 
they say Jackson is keeping the money in. They 
were more solvent then than they are now ; and 
the government then lost by these swindling traps 
one million and five hundred thousand dollars in 
four years ! In 1816, the government found it im- 
possible to get on without a national bank. Then 
they established the present bank. The bank paid 
for the use of the deposites one million and five 
hundred thousand dollars. You may call it hire, 
or bu^f which you please^ This was a solemn 
contract between the government and the bank ; 
and Jackson broke it The bank agreed to pay 
off the debts of the government, free of charge ; 
and she has paid off for the government four hun- 
dred and sixty millions of money, without a cent 
lost to the country. And after all these benefits, 
Jackson is trying to destroy it. He ordered Mr. 
Duane, the honest man of Pennsylvania, to break 
the law, and remove the deposites. Duane said 
both his conscience and his duty forbid it. Then 
he had to take to his heels ; he got his walking 
ticket ! 

"Jackson then appointed Taney his tool ; and 
said, ^I take the responsibility.' Now, gentlemen^ 



188 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

who removed the deposites? Was it the master, 
or was it the tool .'* I say Jackson violated the law, 
and ought to be punished. 

"When Caesar demanded the keys of the trea- 
sury of Rome, the secretary said, ^no man had a 
right to demand them but the Roman senate.' 
Caesar shook his finger at him, and said, 'It is as 
easy for Caesar to take your life as to will it' 
Caesar then trampled on the laws, and seized the 
money ; and the Roman people, just like our Jack- 
son man-worshippers, said it was all right. 

''Now, I ask any Jackson man where the pub- 
lic money of this country is? Old Amos himself 
could hardly tell, except as to that part he has in 
his pocket ! Is it in the local banks } They could 
lick it up in a minute. 

"The reason I compare Andrew Jackson with 
King George is, that there were two hundred 
thousand petitioners, who sent their memorials to 
Congress, praying for a restoration of the depo- 
sites. And where were these memorials sent ? To 
a packed committee, made by a party speaker, 
with his pay in his pocket ! But he lost his pay ; 
and I aint sorry. He appointed a majority in 
every committee in favour of Jackson. In the 
committee of ways and means, there were six 
Jackson, and three anti's. And I contend he vio- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 189 

lated the common law. I am no lawyer, but I 
have been a piece of a court ; and in my country, 
when one man acts as a juror in any case, he is 
never competent to act again in the same case. But 
there was Mr. Thomas, appointed one of the com- 
mittee to investigate the bank, at the last Congress. 
He had the Jackson stripe ; and the speaker ap- 
pointed him chairman this year to examine the 
same bank. And you had a contested election from 
your state — Mr. Letcher, and one Moore; both 
expected justice ; and the speaker could only find 
one anti to put in their committee, and even he was 
only anti-mason. But he stood up to the rack, and 
the house sustained him ; and one day, the man 
that killed Tecumseh got up, and said he wanted 
leave to suspend the rule, and pass a unanimous vote 
of thanks to the speaker. I said, ^no; read your 
resolution ; I think there is in it something about 
faithful and impartial. Now, as to i\\Q faithful — 
he has been as faithful as a dog — to his party ! — 
but that impartial I go against' But they watch- 
ed their chance, and passed it ; I was in the post- 
office ; I come in, and asked to record my vote ; 
they objected. I told them I considered myself 
swindled out of my vote. But, gentlemen, what 
is worse than all, is to see Andrew Jackson leave 
his high station, and come to Tennessee, to get that 



190 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

state to go for Van Buren. It is true little Van 
was smuggled into the vice-presidency, in the seat 
of Jackson's breeches, by the general-ticket system 
in every state. The people would have General 
Jackson on the head of the ticket, and they did 
not care what come after: this is the way he got 
Tennessee. 

" When Jackson came to Nashville this fall, I 
told some people that his intention was to elec- 
tioneer for Van Buren — I had suspicions of it. 
Sure enough, when I was in Nashville a short time 
back, I called at Colonel Foster's law office ; his 
father, the Rev. R. C. Foster, was there. Old Mr. 
Foster, the colonel's father, in conversation about 
Van Buren, remarked, that he had not taken a 
glass of wine for many years until the other day, 
when he was at a dinner table with the president, 
and he said to him, ' Mr. Foster, I have a bottle 
of good Van Buren wine ; will you take a glass 
with me ?' — Mr. Foster said he took a glass with 
the general. Now havn't I cause for suspicion ? 

" This is what I call electioneering on a low 
scale. Now to see him try to smuggle that poli- 
tical Judas in as his successor is cruel ! 

" As I came to your town I stopped at Salt river, 
where I met with Captain Robert Carey, of Cincin- 
nati. He told me that he was acquainted with Van 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 191 

Buren ever since he was a boy ; and that he was a 
little, lying, tell-tale boy. He said he also was in 
London when Van Buren was our minister there ; 
and heard Van Buren say to an English lord, at 
the table of a Mr. Childs, the owner of a distin- 
guished house in London, * That it would be but 
a few years until America would be a crow-head ; 
that the northern and southern states were about 
to split, and he wished how soon.^ r • >. 

" The little thing thinks he will be wafted in 
as Jackson's successor, and get the crown on his 
bald pate. This I do believe is his intention. 
Gentlemen, let me propose a toast. 

'^Martin Van Buren. — A political Judas — 
may he sink to the level of his merits." 

" Henry Clay. — The mighty champion of civil 
liberty — the friend of his country, the foe of her 
enemies. Posterity will mark his patriotism, and 
weep over his persecutions." 

<^ The Hon. Thomas Chilton. — A zealous, ta- 
lented, and vigilant representative of the people." 

Mr. Chilton then rose and addressed the meet- 
ing in his usual eloquent and impressive manner. 

" The Fair Sex. — There would be no doing 
without them." 

" Our Landlord. — We tender him our grateful 
thanks for his munificent and sumptuous fare." 



192 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

From Elizabethtown I hastened on to Washing- 
ton ; not that there was any thing particular to be 
done at the opening of the session, but because I 
determined that nothing should be wanting, on my 
part, on the subject of the bill reported by me con- 
cerning certain settlers in Tennessee. 

Out came the president's message, with a mo- 
dest request to authorize him, at his discretion, to 
make war upon France. I have thought this mat- 
ter over a good deal ; and if we could get at the 
secrets of the cabinet, I'd give my head for a soaj>- 
gourd, that Andrew Jackson never made the pro- 
position for letters of marque and reprisal. It 
an't in his way. He went jam up for war ; but 
the cabinet got him down to half heat, and then he 
signed the message ; and I do sincerely think he has 
repented it ever since ; for as some of his head men 
in Congress have said, if he had recommended war 
right out,he'd have got as much outof thefusski^ik- 
ed up, as he asked for in his message. But I am glad 
that the senate resolution has passed, and in such 
a way as to stop the mouths of those who think it 
God's service to slander and abuse that patriotic 
body ; and I hope our house will take things coolly 
also. I know there is difficulty in the foreign af- 
fairs committee. Some won't vote to give the pre- 
sident the powxr asked for ; some won't vote 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. X93 

against him ; and others look on, with the balance 
of power between their teeth. Long may they 
stick so, unless they all come round to the right 
side. 

Give the president power to make war ? Where 
did anybody in his senses get this from ? It 
isn't in the constitution, or I never read it right 
It's very true, a plain man like myself can't see as 
many powers in it as one that has glorification specs 
on. It is very plainly, however, laid down that 
Congress shall have power to declare war, and no 
one else. It is admitted, that sending out ships to 
plunder your neighbour or adversary, is as much 
as mere words in making war. I don't like it. It 
isn't the clean thing. Give me the bold declaration 
of war, instead of hitting a fellow w^hen he's off his 
guard. Give him time to take off the dudds, and 
then lick him if you can. I believe I never got 
the worst of a fight but once, and then the fellow 
put at me when I was muffled up in my big coal 
and leggins. 

If I understand this marque business, it amounts 
to this : We say, and I believe truly, that France, 
by her treaty with Mr. Rives, promised to pay us 
five millions of dollars. The king admits the jus- 
tice of our claim ; but, in France, as here, there is 
a squabble between the ins and the outs : the outs 
R 



194 ^OL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

make a great fuss about being cheated, and think it 
will be popular with the people to refuse to give 
the king the money to pay this debt. Well, now 
they are but politicians hi to-day, and out again 
to-morrow ; and who knows or believes that they 
speak the sober sentiments of good old France, 
that did a heap for us in the old war for indepen- 
dence? I don't, for one. Let us wait a little. 
War is no such trifle ; and national honour was 
never much disgraced by a full exercise of patience 
and forbearance. Well, General Jackson wants 
Congress to say, that whenever he gets tired wait- 
ing on these Frenchmen, and he thinks they won't 
pay, that he may commission as many ships as h& 
pleases, to go out on the high sea, and seize as 
many French ships, and property of individuals, 
who perhaps never heard of this difficulty, as will 
pay our five million claim. What is this but war 
in its worst shape? Robbery, dignified by the 
title of reprisals. Honest men's property sacri- 
ficed, to get at the national honour of France ! ! 

If Congress alone can declare war, how could 
they say to General Jackson that they will hand 
over their responsibility and discretion to him ? 

Why, mark my words for it, if they do, the old 
man will be down at the navy-yard and arsenal, 
a boring out the touch-holes himself. Ground 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I95 

alum salt would not keep him three weeks without 
a fight. He has given so much of his old land 
glory to Van Buren, that he wants a little by water 
for himself, and others of his hangers on. 

It's diverting to see what a warrior strut some 
of the little captains have in Congress ; looking 
first at one shoulder, then at another, and thinking 
how much bigger they would look with a pair of 
epaulettes on. Some talking about rations and 
pay ; some slily calculating contracts, and so on. 
Fighting France ! " Come over," said a fellow in 
December, " swim over the mill-dam, you rascal ; 
come over here, and if I don't give you the biggest 
lickin you ever had." No more chance for a fight 
in one case than the other ; and happy thing it is. 

My course would be this. If France is deter- 
mined to put off this plain question — I mean her 
aspiring politicians — close your ports against her 
ships ; exclude her silk and finery ; her brandies 
and wines ; pass a non-intercourse and non-impor- 
tation act ; and my word for it, the people will 
teach them a lesson at home, how to pay their just 
debts. 

Why this course was not advised, I know not, 
unless it is supposed that certain objects of political 
stock-jobbing could be better attained by fat con- 
tracts, and the people be blinded to their own in- 



196 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

terest by the storm of war ; or unless the hero has 
been flattered up to condescend to break his word 
a second time, and run for a third term. 

Before I am done writing, you will hear, or else 
I will tell you, something that will be a damper, 
from the head man of the gap to the tattered scul- 
lion of the kitchen cabinet. 

Blair may shut his mouth, if he can, and Amos 
may set to cyphering ; but it won't do. They'll 
be as far wrong as they were in counting noses last 
year, when the Indiana man carried the resolution 
for two or three weeks in his pocket, to declare 
the election of Gales and Seaton void. 

But, after all, it seems to me that this here war 
that is so much talked of, is not rightly called ; and 
I like most monstrously to call children by right 
names. If it was called the " Rives and Jackson 
war with the French ministers," it would be what 
I think true. How did all this thing come about ? 
Who can tell us all about it ? Mr. Forsyth could, 
but he is a mighty prudent man, and I don't want 
him to ; but I'll tell what I think. When General 
Jackson came into the presidency, he was desirous 
of proving that he was, what he had been declared 
not to be, acquainted with our national concerns, 
both at home and abroad. Well, Mr. Rives, known 
to be a talented gentleman, from Virginia, was se- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. I97 

lected as our minister to France. This old claim 
of ours had been boxed about for a quarter of a cen- 
tury; and the commercial part of our country being 
generally opposed to General Jackson, a bold stroke 
was to be made for their interests in these French 
claims. The requisite instructions were made out, 
and Mr. Rives took his departure. Well, as soon 
as he could with a good face, he put at the French 
minister about these old claims. They fought shy; 
but the negotiation went on. Mr. Rives pushed 
hard for a large amount; the French trying to 
beat down ; till, at long and last, twenty-five mil- 
lions of francs, which makes five millions of dol- 
lars, was agreed upon, as the sum to be paid. 
" Well, now, sign the treaty," said Mr. Rives. 
" Certainly," replied Mr. Frenchman ; " but, Mr. 
Rives, you will be so good as to remember and in- 
form your government, that although I sign the 
treaty for this sum, there are a great many of the 
Chamber of Deputies who are opposed to it ; and 
it must meet their approbation, or the money can't 
be forthcoming." — " Certainly," said Mr. Rives, 
"I understand all that; we will run the risk." 
The ink being scarcely dry, off came our minister. 
Now for the glory. Not satisfied that the treaty 
had been made, they must " cut de grand floreesh" 
-^sustain the character of General Jackson and 
r2 



X98 ^^'^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

little Van as great statesmen, and prove the diplo- 
matic skill of Mr. Rives. How was this to be 
done ? No other way than by calling for the cor- 
respondence of Mr. Rives while minister to France. 
Mr. Edward Everett could tell about this. I think 
he offered the resolution — at w^hose instance,! don't 
say. Out it came ; and, like many other misguided 
concerns, they did not take pains enough in the 
department of state to retain or keep back certain 
letters of Mr. Rives, in which he kind of boasts 
that he had outwitted the French. Well, this sort 
of put up the dander of the French : but no odds. 
Draw for the first instalment, not when due, but 
before it; the deputies, or somebody, or nobody, 
will pay it. General Jackson is a diplomat that 
isn't to be trifled with. Well, they did draw ; and 
what was the consequence ? The money was not 
paid. Here was an end of all the glory. But Ge- 
neral Jackson, true to his former life, never gives 
up a wrangle, if he has backers ; and now wants 
us to expend one hundred millions to back his 
diplomacy, and establish Mr. Rives' character for 
skill — certainly not for prudence, I say, after all 
this. Wait patiently; France is reasonable, cer- 
tainly; but let her be satisfied, as her king is, that 
too much has not been promised, and my word for 
it, she will pay the uttermost farthing. If I should 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 199 

be mistaken, legislate her into her senses ; and this, 
I hope and trust, will be the course of this present 
Congress. We will wait, and see how things run. 

Since I began to write, the post-office commit- 
tees have both reported ; and I was right as to the 
issue. Both the Senate and the House committees 
are dead against the concern. How else could it 
be ? People must believe their senses 5 and when 
every single case which has been investigated has 
been found to be rotten to the core, how could they 
report favourably? The whole shows that the 
annual reports to Congress were not to be depend- 
ed on ; that instead of the department flourishing, 
as the president has often told Congress, it was 
languishing — it was strangling secretly. No one 
knew it but the doctors ; and they knew that burnt 
brandy could not save it ; but they were determin- 
ed to hold on to the carcass, though the soul was 
gone. 

Truth will come out. One of the post-office 
clerks remarked that from the Senate committee 
they had nothing to expect : they were constituted 
with the avowed purpose of hunting out defects, 
and errors, and coiTuption, if they could, and there- 
fore the department had fair warning. But what 
spited them most of all was, that the House com- 
mittee — got up expressly for the purpose of sustain- 



200 ^^I^- <^rvOOKETT'S TOUR. 

ing the department, and proving that the report 
of the Senate last year was erroneous, and that the 
department was sound and efficient, and Major 
Barry competent, and so on, and so on — should 
turn right round, and hit them harder than the 
others. "Well," says I, "the next time you in- 
vite your friends to a hunt, don't start them on a 
skunk track, or they're sure to curse you, up hill 
and down dale. You told Conner what was not 
true, and he believed you ; but when he and the 
others come to try for themselves, they could not 
cipher up the extras a bit better than Ewing and 
Southard ; nor could the parson work the sum in 
their presence, because they would not let him 
force the answer : two and two would not make 
five in their presence, however it might work be- 
hind the door." 

I hope now that extras will cease, and that Billy 
Smith and every one of them will get no more 
than what they contract for, and that he will 
be let off of his contract to change the politics of 
Virginia. Let him sell his printing-presses, and 
go to work honestly to make a living. One thing 
certain has come out of all this. The department 
has got a settlement for once with the big contrac- 
tors. Whose fault it was that this was not done 
before, I think is not hard to figure out. The de- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. QQi 

partment had the power to force the contractors to 
settlement ; the contractors could not force them. 
But settlement to a dollar did not suit the purposes 
of the department. They showed up a big score 
due by contractors, and this helped them to prove 
to Congress that the means of the office were great ; 
whereas if they had given the contractors credit on 
their books for the extras, and additionals, and ex- 
presses, and so on, they would, as in some instances 
it turned out, bring the department in debt. Look 
at the facts, that in some of the accounts, where 
contractors were reported as owing thousands of 
dollars, items of credit for services rendered months 
and years before had not been entered ! ! ! Give 
the contractors their due : if the system required 
favouritism, who would turn his back ? It's ask- 
ing a good deal to say that the servant shall correct 
his master. The fact is, the system did require 
it ; and they began by shoving John McLean over- 
board. Postmasters were to be kicked out, new 
post-offices established, new routes opened, con- 
tractors to be encouraged in supporting newspapers 
to huzza for Jackson and reform; and, in fact, the 
whole shool and boiling of the business of the de- 
partment was put at scramblings. How could it 
go right? No, indeed ; it was like a frolicking 
executor or administrator getting hold of a large 



202 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

estate ; away he goes, the hest fellow in the world! 
any thing you please to ask : but by-and-by the 
settlement comes — his vouchers won't pass muster 
before the court, and what then ? His bondsmen 
suffer. Thank God, my name was struck off the 
papers before they began much of this same devil- 
try, and I han't nothing to pay. Them that danced 
should pay the piper ; but I suppose they will all 
say as the young man said of the old quaker when 
the robbers stopped the mail-coach. The old gen- 
tleman gave up his purse ; the young man held 
back : a pistol was presented at him : " Oh," says 
he, " don't shoot; old uncle always pays for me !" 
So poor old Uncle Sam, I suppose, will pay for all : 
and I am glad that the funding system has paid 
off our national debt, so that a few hundreds of 
thousands won't hurt us much now. General Jack- 
son can pay off the post-office debt as he said he 
would the old debt, hy borrowing ; and then we'll 
burn all the books and old extra contracts, and begin 
dee novo, as the Latin scholars say in Congress. 

But what is to come out of all this ? What will 
General Jackson do about all this ? He loves Major 
Barry, as he calls him ; and all know that the 
major is a mighty clever fellow, and it was wrong 
to put him where he had too many hooks to mind 
at once, and more particular where the underlings 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 203 

fixed the bait. General Jackson has and always 
had a powerful disposition to stick to them he 
liked and who liked him, (every body knows this 
but Ingham, and Branch, and a few others ;) and 
if a little dirt did happen to be on their clothes, he 
stuck to them till it dries ; and then there is only a 
small blur left, as if it was intended. Like the 
young Englishmen that rides up to the capitol, and 
spatters their boots a little, to let you see how 
nicely they are blacked. 

God forgive me, I don't just blame the parson 
for all that took place, and I don't think it fair that 
he alone should bear the blame. It looks a sort of 
run against the church, a kind of sectarian Unita- 
rianism, that don't read pretty. I did hear say 
there was to be a kind of quarter day, and that 
some new hands was to be brought to their assis- 
tants; but I reckon they only bought a new broom 
to sweep up the memorandums. Yet I thought, 
a few days ago, that I saw a member, when he Was 
franking a bundle, look at it as if he could sign 
As't. P. M. Gen'l. mighty pretty. 

Well, I believe I've writ enough about the post- 
office, and will quit, else they will think I was on 
the committee. 

Some people begin history in the middle, but as 
I go my own gait, I'll leave off there ; and I may 



204 ^^^'- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

just as well, for if all was to be wrote about the 
post-office, I had better send out and buy a flock 
of geese, for the double purpose of getting a supply 
of quills and watching while I wrote ; and yet I 
suppose they would not cackle at an "old Roman," 
and I might be took up. 

Washington City, January 7, 1835. 
Hon. David Crockett. 

Dear Sir, — We have learned, because you se- 
cretly informed us, that you have declined permit- 
ting your name to be used as a candidate for the 
presidency of the United States, and that you have 
addressed a letter to that effect, some time since, 
to the committee of the convention of Mississippi, 
by whom you were nominated for that high office. 
Upon a private understanding between you and 
ourselves, and a number of our friends, held in a 
kind of caucus, it has been concluded that we 
should come out in a seeming open application for 
a copy of your letter, pretending that it is import- 
ant that your friends elsewhere, as well as in Mis- 
sissippi, may have an early opportunity of turning 
their attention to some other suitable person, but 
really to give you an occasion to play off upon the 
public one of your best efforts for effect, and to 
keep up the humbuggery of the bank, gold cur- 
rency, and all that sort of thing, so necessary to 
blind the people, and keep our party together. 
Yours, with great respect, 

Nicholas Banks, of Pennsylvania. 

Andrew J. Bullion, of Indiana. 

Thos. B. Goldwire, of New-Hampshire. 

Martin V. Trasiimoney, of New York. 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 205 

Washington City^ January 8, 1835. 
Gentlemen, — I send you a copy of the letter 
you wish. It is not my wish to take advantage of 
any body. I never said I cared about being presi- 
dent noiv, and so I have writ to all my friends in 
private letters, and when I talked about it I always 
talked that way. As Mississippi was the first 
state (and I expected it would be the last) that 
nominated me for the " government," I writ the 
letter, and sent it there to be printed, to show that 
I didn't go off half cocked, and to keep people 
from thinking that I had refused before I was 
ready. But as I want another man elected in the 
north, that I may have a sort of a plea to come in 
next time myself from the south-west, and as I 
see some people are going to try to hunt for them- 
selves, and don't seem to bis after the same game 
that I am, but are scouting all about to start other 
sport, and seem to be barking up the wrong sap- 
ling, I want to blow 'em off, and put 'em on the 
right trail. But as we understand each other, I 
shan't say any more, but just send you the letter, 
and am glad you mean to publish it. 
Your friend, 

David Crockett. 
To the Committee. 

Washington City, December 1, 1833. 
Dear Sir, — I suppose the democratic conven- 
tion is in earnest in recommending me to be the 
president of the United States. There is so much 
trickery about that thing now~a-days, and so many 
sham nominations, just to make people show their 
hands, that I thought I would let you see that I 
know a thing or two myself, before I stated how 
thankful I am for your pitching on me for the pre- 
sidency. But I am sorry I don't want the office 
S 



206 C^I^' CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

just now — I'm after another thing. I'm a very 
candid man ; and when my mind is fixed upon a 
matter, you might as well try to stop gunpowder 
half blown up, as stop me. I can't agree to be pre- 
sident. 

The next election for president and vice goes 
ahead of all the elections that ever took place in 
America, except when Jefferson and the present 
"government" was elected. Them two beat all 
creation, because they fought for the " democratic 
principle." Now I should think the constitution 
quite gone, unless the " democracy" — that is, our 
side, all the office-holders in the country, and in 
Washington city, and at New York, and every 
where — carried the election in 1836. To win 
that election we must give item to one another. 
We must hang together like a pitch plaster to a bald 
pate. No flying off — no thinking for ourselves. 
One man must think for all. We musn't have but 
one candidate, and for that reason I won't go upon 
the list. I'll be a "voter," and this is a big cha- 
racter, able to shoulder a steamboat, and carry any 
candidate that the caucus at Baltimore may set up 
against the people. What's the people to a caucus ? 
Nothing but a dead ague to an earthquake. 

But, gentlemen, though I can't take the ap- 
pointment myself, I will tell you who can, and you 
won't have to persuade him long neither. He will 
play shy at first, owing to his nature ; but it ain't 
hard to bring him too. It is Mr. Martin Van Buren. 
Perhaps you never heard of him before. He never 
meddles in anybody's business. I have known 
him a long time, and I can assure you he is all 
sorts of a great man. Where any other man has 
one good quality he has lots. We didn't set in the 
same chair together more than two years, but fully 
half that time he was either in my lap or I in his, 



COL. CROCKETI^S TOUB. 207 

exchanging compliments, so that I know him bet- 
ter than a book, and can say, take him up one side 
and down t'other, he is the most fitting man, next 
to General Jackson, for the president, of any man 
that now hurrahs for hard money and the people. 
The way he is a democrat, is a caution, all over. 
He is dyed in the wool, through and through, and 
comes as near to the red britches of Mr. Jefferson 
iis a new patch upon an old garment can be made. 
As to ability, he himself don't know how much he 
knows ; and if he don't, who can ? 

He aint like any other living cretur ; he can't be 
attacked ; fights just as well behind as before ; sees 
as well one way as another. They say his life is 
like a clean copy-book ; there is not a blot in any 
part of it ; not a word nor letter scratched out, and 
every i dotted, and every t crossed from one eend 
to t'other. In his natral disposition he is as tame 
as the present "government," and will just suit to 
come after it. The way his own state thinks of 
him outshines the yellar jackets. They have been 
stall-feeding him for twenty-two years, and have 
got him as slick as an ingon. His state is the big- 
gest in the union ; has got two millions of people, 
forty-two members in Congress, the longest canals, 
the largest ships, more banks, smaller notes, less 
cunning, and more honesty than any state in the 
union, and has never had a president yet:. a great 
reason this for giving her one now, though she has 
had three vice-presidents out of seven, besides 
other high officers, from Alexander Hamilton down. 
But ignorant people, with a glib sort of a tongue, 
says, what has he done ? They ought to ask, what 
has he not done ? I wouldn't answer the first ques- 
tion so far as the people is concerned ; but for hifi 
sake, I will tell you what he has done.. And not 
tp get ahead of my story, I will go back to the 



208 ^'0^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

time he began to be a politician. He set out with 
this rule — never to choose sides till he found out 
which was which ; and if he happened to make a 
mistake, it was nothing to nobody, and things soon 
got straight. He never was wrong in any dispute, 
if either side was right ; that is, he was always 
right, unless both sides was wrong. He broke up 
a whole legislature in New York, to support Mr. 
Madison in the war, and threatened to turn him 
out of his government, and put Mr. Clinton in ; but 
failing in this, he turned over again, and tried to 
break down Mr. Clinton in New York. All the 
time he was for the war, he was making the people 
believe Mr. Madison was not to be trusted ; and 
there has been pieces printed from his speeches, 
and will be printed over, I suppose, showing how 
he abused Mr. Madison's government. Then he 
praised Mr. Clinton, and afterwards turned right 
round, and talked t'other way. He was all sorts 
of a member in the New York legislature. He was 
one of the litter of great men that was got by the 
war out of the old United States Bank. He 
took sides with his father, and went his death 
against his mother. He was the very man for the 
times ; talk, write, fight, bring in bills, laugh, make 
bows, draw state papers, which finally made the 
federal party smell the patching that drove them 
from the field in April, 1814. This was a rale New 
Orleans scrape, and it was a long time before the 
people at Washington found out which was the 
biggest affair. But Mr. Van Buren always give 
up that Orleans was the greatest. Now so much 
for the question, what has he done ? 

It is true, he voted for the tariff of 1828, "that 
bill of abominations," as it was then called, but he 
was obliged to do that; his legislature instructed 
him : but some have said tiiat they instructed him 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 209 

by his own request ; for his friends have boasted 
that he has never seen the day, for the last ten 
years, that he couldn't make a New York legisla- 
ture do as he wanted them. But this vote proves 
what I said before. He went against the tariff at 
home ; called the Harrisburg convention, while it 
was hatching this very tariff bill of 1828, a trick 
and turn over to make a president, and then goes 
to Congress and votes for it. Don't this look like 
a man can't well be wrong that takes both sides .'' 
It looks a little curious that a man should go against 
a measure at home, speak it in public, write agin 
it, abuse it as a fraud and a trick, and get elected 
under these circumstances, and then get the very 
legislature that elects him to tell him to vote against 
his own " graphic" speeches, and for a " measure 
proceeding more from the closet than from the 
WORKSHOP.'^ This is the way he got the name of 
a MAGICIAN : and it looks a good deal like it to a 
man up in a tree. -- 

Mr. Van Buren has been more scandalized than 
any man in the world, not excepting Mr. Jeffer- 
son. Everybody has combined against him. He 
has never interfered with anybody at all. If it 
hadn't been for this, he would have been General 
Jackson's favourite, and he would have made him 
his successor. But they poured so much poison in 
the old man's ears about his conduct against the 
Seminoles, that he never could bear Van Buren 
any more: and he, poor man! gave up his secre- 
taryship, rather than have any fuss. He has never 
complained ; and bore it all like a Christian. Now, 
some people have said that he was first for Craw- 
ford, against Jackson and Jackson's South Carolina 
friends ; and then he was for Adams ; and finally, 
he came in at the eleventh hour for Jackson, got 
into the nest of Jackson's first and fast friends, 
s2 



210 ^'^L. CROCKETrs TOUR. 

rooted 'em out, took their place ; and they even 
go so far as to say that he is the choice of General 
Jackson for president. But this an't so ; if it was, 
it would make him look again a little like a magi- 
cia7i. 

He has been accused about the safety fund banks 
in New York. Now, people don't know any thing 
about these banks. Mr. Van Buren has always 
been in favour of ^^ hard money;" and he always 
obstinately refused to let any more than one hun- 
dred and fifty banks be chartered at one time in New 
York ; and then he said — and stood to it — they 
should 'nt issue notes lower than a quarter of a dol- 
lar; for if they went for notes under that, it would 
drive all the specie out of the country. And then, 
again, he provided, that for every sixty -three dol- 
lars issued in paper, there should be one dollar in 
silver. But, not satisfied with making the notes 
secure, by providing the above specie to take 'em 
up, he said that if one bank failed, all the others 
should make it good. Now, this is the safety fund 
system of New York. These banks are all in a 
league ; and, to keep their privileges, and to keep 
up one another, and to keep up their party, they 
have a joint fund, that is always subject to party 
purposes — ^to pay for votes, for treating, for travel- 
ling, for printing, for handbills, and for every thing 
that is necessary to carry an election. All this is ma- 
naged at Albany, and is called the Albany Regency. 
Now, by this system. New York has sound politics, 
sound morals, and hard money. How can any- 
body blame him for the safety fund banks ? 

Then, too, he has gone with all his might against 
the United States' Bank ; but is in favour of its 
branches, if they will put 'em in New York. Bad 
as that bank is, he wrote for one to be put up in 
Utica ; and his friends denied this, till they proved 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 211 

it upon him by his letter ; and because they hap- 
pened to forget about his trying to get this branch. 
His enemies want to make out that he rows one 
way and looks another : and this is the kind of 
proof that is to make a man a double-dealer! a rria- 
gician! 

They call him non-committal, too, and this is 
because he always looks before he leaps. They 
say he never gives the measure of his foot. Now 
how can this be, when it is shown that he speaks 
against the Tariff at home, and votes for it in Con- 
gress ; goes for internal improvement by the ge- 
neral government in New York, but against it out 
of it; goes against the Bank at Philadelphia, but 
in favour of it at Utica ; goes for all the candidates 
for president in turn, Jackson last, notwithstanding 
which they say he is in higher favour there now 
than those that began before him. Went for the 
war, but went against Madison ; wanted to turn 
out Madison and put in Clinton, and then turned 
Clinton out from the little office he held in New 
York. Goes for gold and hard money, and has 
more rag money in his state than all the other 
states put together. Call you this non-committal ? 
As well may you call the fingers of a watch non- 
committal, that goes regular round to every figure 
on its face. 

I have gone through what they say against Mr. 
Van Buren, and now I must speak about our stick- 
ing together ; every thing for Van Buren, nothing 
for nobody else — that is, nothing for Judge White ; 
for, to tell you the truth, the whole of this letter is 
just intended to keep the people from opening their 
eyes. Some very good, honest Jacksonmen are 
foolish enough to think they ought to have an 
opinion of their own, and talk about it quite grave. 
The words ^ magician,' ' little magician,' ' non- 



219 t;OL. CKOCKETT'8 TOUR. 

committal,' 'safety fund/ 'Albany regency/ ' New- 
York tactics/ and such like, have been named so 
often, they begin to think there is something in it, 
and say, where there is so much smoke there must 
be fire 5 or, as we hunters used to say, where there 
is so much sign there must be game. Now Mr. 
Van and me, and the men that wrote to send 'em 
this letter to be published, and a good many of our 
folks, have all got together, and we think by 
making a great rush upon these free-thinkers, we 
can whip 'em back into the party, and make 'em 
stand up to their rack, fodder or no fodder. This 
letter is all for that purpose. I know, and we all 
know, that one-half of it isn't true, and the other 
is trash. My friends said to me, your name sounds 
big, and if you come out and make believe that you 
don't want to be president, and talk about demo- 
cracy, aristocracy, Jefferson, Madison, Crawford, 
persecution, the war, the bank, gold currency, hard 
money, but, above all, Jackson and the battle of 
New Orleans, and then hurra for union, harmony, 
concession. Van Buren, and the great state of New 
York ; the seceders will tack and run back into the 
democratic republican fold, which means the Van 
Buren fold. 

You must take notice that I am slabb'd off from 
the election, and am nothing but a "voter/' and 
this gives me the right to dictate to the rest, and 
to tell them that I have no concern but to keep the 
democratic party united. Shallow-headed men 
won't see into this, and then I can go on to say 
you ought to elect Mr. Van Buren, because he is 
from the North. If we can keep things straight 
till we do this, the next time the president must 
come from the Southwest ; and then, where do I 
^tand ? By that time the party will be so well 
drilled that they will take anybody the party says 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 213 

they must take ; and, in the mean time, 1 think I 
can cry Bank! Bank! Monster! Corruption! Gold! 
Hard-money! Democracy! and all that; so that, 
if you will recommend me then, I'll be your man- 
If White should be elected now, that Avill be two 
presidents from the Southwest ; and then I can't 
possibly get in. But take Van Buren, and by the 
time his term is up. Judge White will never be in 
my way. It is true. Judge White is as good a 
Jeffersonian as Martin Van Buren, but no better ; 
and besides, he shouldered his musket, and fought 
bravely through the last war, (to say more might 
look like envy.) But if we elect him, it will be 
greedy — look like we wanted all the presidents. 
It would break up the democratic party, set all the 
states together by the ears, and place the country 
in the frightful situation in which it was situated 
when Virginia gave us four democratic presidents 
— three hand-running. It won't do. Let the next 
president come from the North ; and then I go 
with all my heart for a Southwest president, the 
time after ; and that president shall be myself. 

Hoping that you will not forget me eight years 
hence, and that we can keep the people from think- 
ing for themselves against a caucus nomination, 
I am, your fellow citizen, 

David Crockett. 

On the aforegoing I make no remarks. Poste- 
rity will do me justice. 



Coming into the house one morning, I heard the 
clerk reading, " Resolved, that in all elections for 
officers, &c. of this house, &c. &c., the same shall 
be viva voce.'''' Where did that come from ? From 



£14 COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

Illinois; and by whom? Governor Reynolds. I'll 
bet six rounds of powder that Blair wrote the words 
down — that's him. Well, if the Jackson men can 
bear that, we will see the cat and nine tails brought 
in here before long. Glorious confession for him ! 
Straws show how the wind drives. He's scared ; 
can't trust his men ; afraid they won't stand up to 
the rack. Give him rope. Don't put him to the 
trouble of sending all round the country for certi^ 
ficates to prove that he was elected again, 

I tell you, reader, it was a Jackson-Van-Blair 
trap ; and if they can get it to work, every mother's 
son of them will have to vote with the fear of An- 
drew Jackson before his eyes, and woe be to him 
that thinks and acts for himself. Farewell presi- 
dential favours, farewell presidential dinners. 
Globe puffs, and all. 

Who doubts that this was the object. Glorious 
confession, I repeat ; not enough of Van-Burenism 
in this house to elect his printer, or at least they 
fear it ! ! If the election is not so determined, de-* 
pend on it Blair is routed. We'll see how the gan^ 
der hops before the session is over. 

Reader, I told you some time ago, for I've been 
a good while getting this far, that if you did not 
hear before, I would tell you some news. Hugh 
Lawson White is a candidate for the presidency, 
and can't be bought off, and they know it. His 
steel is too pure for them to think of bending him ; 
the atmosphere that surrounds him keeps off all 
busy bodies. The people have called, and are call- 



COL. CROCKETT'S TOUR. 215 

ing him out, and he has put himself into their 
hands. The Van-Burenites are cut to the quick. 
The work is going on too well for their comfort, 
and yet they dare not attack him. He has been 
considered, and justly praised by th6m as the no- 
blest work of God-^an honest man. What are 
they to do ? Hang off, and try to throw their cause 
upon his kind feelings ; persuade him that if he 
runs, he will cause defeat to the Jackson party, and 
an anti will be elected. Thank heaven we are 
nearly done with that word Jackson party, and 
are about to form an Jlmerican party, deep-rooted 
in the affections, and honour, and honesty of the 
American people. 

Every body has heard of Lawrence shdoting, or 
attempting to shoot at the president. This of it- 
self was a horrible affair ; and every man in the 
nation must have shuddered when he heard that 
the president of the United States escaped, as it 
were, by a miracle, from the hands of a madman, 
and that the assault should have been made upon 
the occasion of his attending a funeral. One would 
have thought that in the gratitude which ought to 
have been poured forth to Got! for his preserva- 
tion, every thing like personal animosity would 
have been quiet, and that no one would have been 
implicated without " confirrnation, strong as proof 
from holy writ." Poor human nature ; the man 
will show himself, let " Providence" do as he may. 
Who said it's a damnM Poindexter plot ? Let 
those gentlemen who were ajound himi-and^wkoir 



216 ^^^- CROCKETT'S TOUR. 

endeavoured to quiet hirrij say. The world is 
made up of rumours. Thus the cue was given. 
Some of you may have seen the proceedings ; some 
may not. 

Certain dirty dogs, calculating that nothing 
would be more acceptable to the president than 
affidavits that G overnor Poindexter was concerned 
in this affair, by hook and by crook made out to 
get two, and put them in his possession. He kept 
them in his pocket, and showed them to every 
body, for a number of days. This circumstance 
clearly convinced me that General Jackson did not 
believe what these fellows swore, and only used 
them for effect against Poindexter. For I ask any 
man, the humblest individual in the country, if he 
had in his possession two affidavits which he be- 
lieved were from credible witnesses, that a cer- 
tain person was seen, under suspicious circum- 
stances, in company with a man who had made an 
attempt on his life, whether he would not lay them 
instantly before the first justice he could find, and 
have him arrested ; or at all events, that he would 
have kept them quiet until he had exhausted every 
effort to procure additional proof But this was 
not done. It did not serve the purpose in one re- 
spect, and it failed in another. It is believed by 
Governor Poindexter and many of his friends, that 
they intended to keep the thing snug among the 
initiated until after the 3d of March, and then ar- 
rest him ; or to send them, before him, to Missis- 
sippi, wheie, it is known, the election for senator is^ 
still undecided. 










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